'1,000 innocent prisoners' says former governor

Stefan Kiszko spent 16 years in prison for a murder he did not commit

Some 1,300 prison inmates are innocent, according to a former senior prison service official.

Dr David Wilson said prisoners contesting their convictions should be treated like remand prisoners, and "presumed innocent".

Remand prisoners have not been convicted, and are given special privileges, such as extended visiting hours and exemption from work.

Kiszko 'one of many'

Dr Wilson's belief that at least one in 50 inmates were probably innocent began after Stefan Kiszko was cleared of the murder of schoolgirl Lesley Molseed in 1992 after 16 years in jail.

Mr Kiszko, who died a year after release, was an inmate at Grendon Underwood jail in Buckinghamshire while Dr Wilson was a governor there.

He was one of many long-term inmates destined to stay in prison because they refused to admit their guilt and "address their offending behaviour" - a prerequisite for being granted parole.

Dr Wilson tried to persuade Mr Kiszko to go on a Sex Offenders Treatment Programme, in which he would have had to admit the rape and murder of 11-year-old Lesley and discuss the reasons for his offence.

"Of course he refused - it was absurd," said Dr Wilson.

One in fifty may be innocent

After retiring as a senior official at Prison Service headquarters a year ago, Dr Wilson joined the Prison Reform Trust where he received numerous convincing claims of innocence by inmates.

He also saw the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which was established two years ago, had received more than 1,000 cases of alleged miscarriages of justice.

Dr Wilson, now an academic at the University of Central England, used a social science technique called "triangulation" to came up with the conclusion that 2% of the country's 65,000 inmates were innocent.

He will reveal his research in a chapter in a book due to be published in the summer.

He said the existence of the CCRC was an admission by the criminal justice system that some prisoners were wrongly convicted, and the Prison Service had to reflect that.

"The Prison Service has got to acknowledge some inmates are innocent and do something about it," he said.

Until about 20 years ago, prisoners who had lodged appeals against conviction were eligible for daily visits and could receive an unlimited number of letters.

But a Prison Service spokesman said the privileges were withdrawn because they were widely abused.