Dangerous convicts held at open jail that doesn't have fences

Convicts were also not properly risk assessed before being sent to a jail that does not have a perimeter fence, said Anne Owers.

The revelations are another blow to the Government, which has faced claims that open jails are being used for inappropriate inmates because of the overcrowding crisis.

Mrs Owers's report is confirmation that - despite official denials - proper checks on who should be sent to relaxed conditions are not taking place.

Chief inspector of probation Andrew Bridges gave a separate warning that officers are struggling to supervise up to 70 offenders each.

Mr Bridges's annual report said this left staff unable to monitor freed criminals properly.

Mrs Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, said the Government's policy on open jails

should be called into question. Open jails are supposedly reserved for inmates who are reaching the end of their sentences and who pose a limited danger to the public.

But following an inspection at Leyhill in Gloucestershire, Mrs Owers said it was clear that large numbers of 'very high-risk' inmates were being placed in open conditions.

Leyhill, which has no perimeter fence, is housing up to 50 inmates considered high or very high risk.

The guidance on whether such offenders should be in open prisons at all was 'unclear', she revealed.

Nor were there clear rules on whether high-risk prisoners should be put on normal resettlement programmes where they work in colleges or companies, she said in her report.

She called for discussions with the Parole Board about the 'appropriateness' of placing higher-risk inmates in open jails such as the 500-capacity Leyhill.

Mrs Owers said in her report: 'Leyhill received prisoners identified as high or very high risk, but such prisoners would not normally be able to work or visit outside prison - which called into question the point of them being in open conditions.

'It was increasingly difficult to find suitable placements for the relatively large group of men at Leyhill convicted of sex offences.'

Not all prisoners sent to the jail

had been correctly assessed for its low- security status, the report said.

In one case an offender arrived from Birmingham prison without his security file and had to be returned there within 24 hours.

Mr Bridges said many probation staff were being asked to deal with between 25 and 70 cases at a time.

The demands placed on staff mean many offenders are not monitored or supervised properly, he warned. As a result, the Government's goal of coordinated and continuous management of offenders 'risks being proven undeliverable', said Mr Bridges.

He added that the probation service could not meet the public's expectation that all reoffending was preventable.

Tory justice spokesman Nick Herbert said: 'Problems with the supervision of offenders have been exacerbated by the Government's failure to plan for sufficient prison capacity.

'The early release of criminals has added to the pressure on probation services and makes a mockery of the Government's claim to be ensuring public safety.'

The Ministry of Justice said it will take Mr Bridges's observations seriously and a review was under way.

Open prisons have been forced to take inmates who would not normally have been moved there after the jail population reached a record 81,000.

Last month the Government announced an early release scheme in a desperate attempt to cut inmate numbers.