The hacking of prisoner laptops is just the latest scandal to hit Wandsworth prison.
In January, a judge ordered an inquiry after a prisoner used a smuggled smartphone to organise the importation of guns into Britain for use by the London underworld.
Some of the packages delivered by Parcelforce were stopped, but at least five Skorpion submachine guns reached criminal gangs.
“It beggars belief that someone could so easily and quickly obtain mobile phones and then conduct such a criminal enterprise while in prison,” said Judge David Farrell QC, jailing Alexander Mullings for life for the plot.
“Wandsworth prison have blatantly failed in their duty.”
The next month, a fraudster escaped from Wandsworth after he sent a letter to prison officers posing as court staff and claiming that he had been granted bail.
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Neil Moore, 28, had been on remand at the prison when he set up a website and email address purporting to be the Prison Service, and was able to secure the bail forms.
Wandsworth is a category B local jail where inmates are detained before trial in south London courts, or immediately after conviction before they are moved to other parts of the prison estate. It also has a category C unit for inmates who are about to be released.
The prison, which holds 1,630 men, was criticised last month as being “dangerously overcrowded” in the latest report by prison inspectors. It is listed as the third most crowded in the country with 70 per cent more prisoners than it is designed to hold.
The critical report followed a period of improvements after the prison was rocked in 2009 governors from Wandsworth and Pentonville were swapping inmates to manipulate the inspection process.
