Russell Brand: Inside the 'squalid, unsafe and overcrowded' London jail where he faces years locked up

Convicted rapist Russell Brand is facing years behind bars in a London prison condemned as “unsafe, squalid and overcrowded”.

He is believed to have been kept apart from other prisoners because of the “danger” he could face as a high-profile inmate and because of his crimes.

Prisoners are said to be kept in “inhuman living conditions” at the crumbling jail in south west London.

Russell Brand was convicted of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others

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Mr Justice Joel Bennathan had already warned him he faces a lengthy jail sentence.

Details of which prison he will serve it in have not been released but the expectation was that it is likely to be HMP Wandsworth.

It told how thousands of coats, blankets and portions of soup had to be ordered for inmates when its heating system failed a year ago.

Prisoners at the category B jail are being housed in “unsafe, overcrowded, unsanitary and squalid conditions,” the IMB concluded.

“The severe physical limitations of the Victorian buildings remain, with inhumane living conditions,” it said.

A prisoner van pictured leaving HMP Wandsworth where it is believed Russell Brand was being held on remand ahead of sentencing

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Winter temperatures at the 170-year-old prison have been known to drop as low as 12C.

Staffing also remains an urgent issue, with around one third of staff absent or unavailable every day on average, increasing the hours spent locked in cells for inmates, the IMB said.

He is said to have been visited by a prison chaplain who prayed with him.

He may have been put on a Vulnerable Prisoner Unit if prison staff believed he could be targeted by other inmates.

Prison officers would have carried out regular checks on him to ensure he did not come to harm.

HMP Wandsworth in south-west London

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HMP Wandsworth is the second most overcrowded prison in the country, holding 60% to 80% more people than it is designed for.

The majority of prisoners share extremely cramped cells originally intended for single occupancy, according to the IMB.

Almost half the prisoners are foreign nationals, it added.

The former bus driver was rearrested after going on another shoplifting spree in the days after walking out of the jail.

HMP Wandsworth has been embroiled in a number of scandals in recent years.

Daniel Khalife escaped from HMP Wandsworth in September 2023

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He was caught on a canal towpath by a plainclothes detective days later.

In 2025, former Wandsworth prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was jailed for 15 months after having sex with an inmate in a cell.