Good News: British Prisoners Have It So Easy, Nobody Wants to Leave

Hey, when it comes down to the hard choices, like getting your fix at a cheaper price or paying more on the street, the decision is easy.

They could probably save a bundle on nattering court-appointed lawyers gumming up the system trying to get them out early.

Prisoners are ignoring chances to escape because they would rather stay in their cushy jails where drugs are cheaper than on the outside, a prison chief has said.

Lags at Britain's 'toughest' prisons are treated to breakfast in bed, have Sky TV in every cell and are given cash bonuses for good behaviour.

Sweet. When was the last time any of you got breakfast in bed?

At one prison in Yorkshire, drug dealers and hookers regularly break IN to ply their trade by leaning ladders up against prison walls.

But none of the criminals take the opportunity to leave because they have got it so easy, according to assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers Association Glyn Travis.

He says Britain's jails are close to anarchy and staff morale is at rock-bottom due to under-funding by the Government.

He said: "We're trying to manage a system that's just snowballing out of control.

"The drug problem within prisons is massive. What prison officers find is only the tip of the iceberg. The quantity of drugs in our prisons today is absolutely vast.

"Prison staff are doing everything they possibly can, despite the shortage of resources, to stem the flow.

Unfortunately, we have got far more intricate systems now, fewer staff, and basic security measures are not being performed.

"Drugs are coming into prisons at a rate that's so dramatic that drugs in prisons are actually cheaper than on the outside.

"Every prison in Britain is under-staffed and over-crowded. The Government believes the only way forward is to reduce the cost of public prisons, making them less safe and less secure. Staff feel very vulnerable."

He added: "There's a classic case in Yorkshire where members of the public were climbing over the prison walls to take drugs into the prison. They put up ladders to climb over the walls, but prisoners were so comfortable in the environment they were living in that none of them tried to climb up the ladders and escape.

"When the ladders came down at night, the members of the public hide inside the prison until their colleagues come over the following morning at 6am, put the ladders back up and they were able to get out.

"None of the prisoners inside tried to escape. It tells me there's something wrong in society when people are breaking into prisons to bring in drugs and prostitutes, but the prisoners are quite happy to stay inside."

I'm surprised they don't have a waiting list to get in.