PRISONERS at HMP High Down in Surrey were able to contact victims or potential victims without the fear of being detected, the prisons watchdog warned today.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons said public protection risk assessments to determine whether inmates’ mail and phone calls should be monitored were “not routinely completed for new arrivals” at the Surrey jail.

Inspectors found that “one high-risk prisoner who should have had his letters monitored had been missed over recent weeks and there was evidence of him regularly contacting a vulnerable person in the community.”