Conservatives are demanding an immediate statement from the Home Secretary after it was revealed 106 prisoners escaped from a Midland prison last year. Official figures revealed the level of poor security at Hewell Grange, a Gothic Victorian country house near Redditch, Worcestershire. Thirty of the escapees were never caught and are still at large. Across the country, 500 inmates are on the run from open prisons, according to the latest Home Office figures. According to the latest statistics, Category D prisons are less secure than they have ever been, and more than 900 people fled last year up 20 per cent on the year before. And in the past five years, more than 4,000 have walked out of open prisons with one in eight never being picked up by the police. Inmates are generally white collar criminals, or those coming to the end of the sentences. None are considered to be a danger to the public. The Conservatives have demanded a statement from David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, on the lax security. They have also criticised the prisons for providing lavish sporting facilities and rooms with all mods cons. Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: This is very worrying. We shall be demanding a full statement from the Home Secretary. There is no point in having prisons if people can simply walk out of them. Midland MP Andrew Mitchell (Con Sutton Coldfield) said: We must have an explanation. The Home Office is not taking this issue seriously enough. People sent to prison are meant to stay there, not wander out at will with nobody appearing to care about it. In a report following an inspection of Hewell Grange, HM Inspectorate of Prisons wrote: Prisoners found themselves in beautiful surroundings, as the prison is really a large country mansion with extensive gardens and a lake. There are no locks on the main door. The Home Offices figures show the worst hit prison is Kirkham, near Preston in Lancashire, where 209 prisoners absconded last year. At least 59 are still at large. Hollesley Bay, in Suffolk, where Lord Archer is serving out the remainder of his four-year sentence for perjury, has lost 81 prisoners in the last five years. And Archers former prison, North Sea Camp in Lincolnshire, has lost 150 prisoners in five years. | 
