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A bungling prison employee sparked a major security scare by walking an inmate out of the gates to pick up tomatoes for the canteen, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The farcical yet deeply concerning incident unfolded this month at HMP Downview, a closed women’s prison on the outskirts of Banstead in Surrey.
A male kitchen worker wanted to pick up tomatoes from HMP Highdown, a men’s jail next door – and took the extraordinary decision to take a prisoner with him to help.
In scenes that defy belief, the employee walked out of Downview past security guards at the gate, who ‘didn’t bat an eyelid’, a source told the Mail.
As other officers arrived outside Downview for their shift, they were stunned to see an inmate had been mistakenly let out and she was rushed back inside.
The prison went into full lockdown and all the governors were summoned. The inmate was put into segregation before being transferred to another prison.
Vanessa Frake-Harris MBE, former Head of Security at Wormwood Scrubs, called the incident on Saturday, October 4 ‘unbelievable’.
The farcical yet deeply concerning incident unfolded on Sunday at HMP Downview, a closed women’s prison on the outskirts of Banstead in Surrey
‘Unfortunately this is a sad reflection on our beleaguered prison service,’ she told the Mail.
‘A closed prison is exactly that – a highly secure facility for prisoners considered too high-risk of escaping or harming others to be in an open prison setting.
‘The correct procedure would have been to risk assess the prisoner and if suitable grant them accompanied temporary release.
‘Thankfully on this occasion the prisoner did not escape.’
In a recent inspection, Downview’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) specifically warned about poor security at the prison gate.
A Prison Service spokesman said: ‘We are taking extremely seriously a brief security breach at HMP Downview which lasted less than 10 minutes. In line with our processes, two members of staff have been suspended pending an investigation.
‘Swift action was taken by other staff to correct the breach and ensure it never happens again.’
While the kitchen worker would have carried keys, he would have needed to hand these in at the inner gatehouse.
He would have then had to pass through the final gatehouse checks to be let out by the guards.
The prisoner would have then stood alongside him in full view of the guards as they were both let out of the prison.
It is not clear what the inmate had been imprisoned for, but the fact she was allowed to work in the kitchen suggests she was considered to be relatively trustworthy.
Nonetheless, the decision to let her out of the prison – and the fact guards at the gate did nothing to intervene – was an astonishing breach of security protocol.
In its latest annual report, the Downview IMB found there was ‘no routine enhanced security on the gate for visitors or staff’.
The organisation said none of its members had ever been searched while entering the prison – despite many of them being in their roles for more than seven years.
The board is made up of members of the public volunteering their time.
Its report also noted that friends and family members of prisoners had commented on the ‘relaxed’ searching process during their visits – despite bosses raising concerns that some of them could be bringing in drugs.
The IMB said there had been an increase in the amount of drugs being brought into the prison, including spice, heroin and cannabis.
Dangerous synthetic opioids were also intercepted at the jail in early 2025 for the first time.
Downview has an operational capacity of 356, consisting of sentenced women and young offenders over 18.
The prison also houses Britain’s only wing for high-risk transgender inmates.
Many assumed it would be axed after April’s Supreme Court ruling that the definition of women is based on biological sex, but the IMB said its status ‘has not been formally clarified’ – suggesting ministers are sitting on their hands about its future.
