Prison where the back gate was left open

Some have painstakingly chipped away the bricks, others have hidden in laundry vans and the most daring have even escaped prison by helicopter.

But a report highlights one jail where inmates may not need so much ingenuity. Staff at a Nottinghamshire prison regularly left the back gate open at night so they could park their cars within the secure perimeter wall.

Inspectors who visited Ranby prison, near Retford, this year also noticed a ladder left leaning against the inner security fence. The chief inspector of prisons, Anne Owers, says in her report that, despite Ranby rating 84% in a security audit, there was a "general casualness about some aspects of security" including keys.

A Prison Service spokeswoman said the back gate being left open was an isolated incident and the ladder was now chained and only used to search the tops of vehicles leaving the prison. Prisoners did not have access to the gate except on release.