Could jamming prison phones have stopped John Anslow?

AFTER a second "dangerous" prisoner escaped during transit this week, a criminologist has told The Week it is "worrying" that mobile phone signals have not yet been blocked in prisons.
 
Just three days after John Anslow (above left) escaped from a van taking him from Hewell Grange prison to Stafford Crown Court, a second man serving an indeterminate sentence for grievous bodily harm has broken free.
 
The BBC reports that Andrew Farndon (above right), 26, a prisoner at HMP Highpoint, had just arrived at a hospital in Bury St Edmonds last night when a gunman threatened his two prison guards to help him escape. Police say it is "highly likely" the injuries Farndon had received in prison were contrived to ensure a trip to hospital.
 
Dr James Treadwell, a criminologist from the University of Leicester, told The Week today: "Both men must have had access to mobile phones to arrange their escapes. It is worrying that there is technology available to block mobile phone signal in prisons but not all prisons are doing it."
 
Handsets can be smuggled in by prisoners, visitors or corrupt staff and can be worth hundreds of pounds once behind bars, but the Prison Service has said in the past that signal blocking is technically challenging and not quick, simple or cheap to implement. It would cost about £250,000 to equip a prison to jam calls, according to Wandsworth prison's Independent Monitoring Board.
 
Another high profile escapee, Michael O'Donnell, cut off part of his ear to escape from an ambulance in 2010, with the help of his girlfriend who smuggled a phone into jail for him. He was found a month later in Pontin's Park, Southport and she was jailed for four months.
 
Dr Treadwell told The Week he would have expected Anslow, a 'high risk Category A' suspect, to be placed in a more secure prison than Hewell Grange, which normally houses Category B, C and D prisoners.
 
Anslow's prison van was ambushed in a road near Hewell Grange by three masked men wielding sledgehammers. If he had been held in a city centre jail it might have reduced the chances of his escape.
 
"It would not be impossible to spring someone from a city centre prison but it would remove the issue of a prisoner being taken on windy, country roads to get to court, giving his associates the geographical advantage for an ambush."
 
Like many police officers, Treadwell fears Anslow may have already fled the country.
 
If the two men are caught and there is enough evidence to prove they organised their own escapes, they could face substantially increased custodial sentences. ·