Any prisoner considered to present a high risk of absconding from open prisons will be held in closed conditions pending further assessments of risk, and systems are in place to achieve this.
There have been two escapes on an inter-prison transfer in the past five years. These occurred in October 2005 and March 2006.
The following data show the number of prisoners who have escaped from custody in England and Wales between April 2004 and December 2008. The number of escapes from custody has been falling since 1995 when centrally collated records began; this is against the backdrop of an increasing prison population.
Number of escapes from establishment Number of escapes from prison service escort Number of escapes from contractor escort April 2004 — 2 3 May 2004 1 2 3 June 2004 — — 2 July 2004 1 1 1 August 2004 1 — 1 September 2004 2 — 4 October 2004 1 1 1 November 2004 1 — 3 December 2004 3 1 4 January 2005 — — 1 February 2005 2 — 3 March 2005 — 1 2 April 2005 — 1 3 May 2005 — 1 — June 2005 — — 3 July 2005 — 2 — August 2005 1 — 1 September 2005 — — 3 October 2005 — 3 1 January 2006 2 — — February 2006 — 1 2 March 2006 — — 4 June 2006 1 — 2 July 2006 — — 2 August 2006 — — 1 September 2006 1 — 3 October 2006 — — 1 November 2006 — — 2 December 2006 — — 2 January 2007 — 1 1 February 2007 — — 3 March 2007 — — 2 April 2007 — — 2 May 2007 — — 1 June 2007 — — 1 August 2007 1 — 3 September 2007 2 — 1 October 2007 — 1 2 November 2007 — — 2 December 2007 — — 1 January 2008 — 1 2 March 2008 1 — 1 April 2008 — — 3 May 2008 — 1 1 June 2008 — — 1 October 2008 — 1 2 November 2008 — 1 1 December 2008 — — 3 Notes: 1. Data on escapes from contractor escorts include escorts from police station to court as these are carried out by National Offender Management Service contractors. These figures do not include other police-related escort escapes such as escapes while been transported from point of arrest to police station or transport between police stations. 2. All figures shown are for key performance indicator Escapes recorded as part of the NOMS performance management system.