VISITORS smuggling in mobile phones, staff shortages and four-year waits for inquests into prisoner deaths are all problems facing Belmarsh Prison, a report claims.

Belmarsh’s Independent Monitoring Board also says the prison has many inmates who should not be there, including people who should be given training unavailable at Belmarsh, and 15 prisoners with mental health problems who should be in healthcare facilities.

Retiring chairman David Pinchin, said this was because of overcrowding in Britain’s prisons.

The board says prisoners joke about the easy availability of mobile phones smuggled into the prison and recommends installing a blocking system to prevent their use.

Just last year inmate Delphon Nicholas, aged 29, of Sheene Wood, Sydenham, was given a life sentence after using a smuggled mobile phone to order the killing of a man in Brockley.

Mr Pinchin, who has chaired the board for four years, said: “As phones are getting smaller it’s much more difficult to discover them when people are coming into prisons.

“They’re used for phoning out and they become currency within the jail. It also means criminal activity can be perpetrated from inside the jail.”

Belmarsh East, a Category C, 480-place training prison, is due to open in 2010 and the report says it will have problems recruiting enough staff from the area.

He said: “The prison themselves wouldn’t say there’s going to be a problem but I know there’s anxiety in the prison service generally about the prospect of recruitment.

“There are people concerned about the suitability of the establishment if people from the present Belmarsh have to go over into the new one or they can’t recruit from the area.

“If there’s going to be any sort of movement of staff from the present prison to the new one then the lot of the prisoner is going to be affected.”

The report says Belmarsh is still waiting for four inquests relating to deaths over 18 months ago, including one which took place in January 2005, having a “devastating for bereaved families and also for the staff who were involved at the time.”

It says: “The delay between deaths in custody and inquests is an absolute disgrace.”

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