After just three weeks in Lincoln’s high-security jail, author Jeffrey Archer has been moved to an open prison on the Suffolk coast. The same institution in which the disgraced peer wanted to be housed after receiving a four-year sentence for perjury.
The move has sparked outrage amid claims that the 62-year-old former politician is coming in for special treatment. “Once again it seems Lord Archer has been treated differently from everyone else,” says Prisons Handbook editor Mark Leech.
Archer was moved to Lincoln from low-security North Sea Camp after flaunting the prison by attending a party during a home visit. In addition to his unauthorised social foray, Lord Archer sparked further controversy by publishing a diary detailing his sojourn in another detention centre.
While in the high-security institution, he spent up to 22 hours a day locked in his cell – a very different regime form that he will enjoy at his new home, Hollesley Bay open prison.
Dubbed a “holiday camp” by former inmates, Hollesley is located just 70 miles from his home in Cambridge, meaning Archer’s wife Mary will be able to take advantage of weekend visits of up to two hours a day.
The new inmate will have his own cell, to which he will be given a key. Hollesley’s facilities include a gym and inmates can avail themselves of massage and acupuncture treatments. “This can’t be right,” said one prison source. “He has openly and publicly flaunted the rules. Is this the way the prison service treats all criminals who break their rules? I doubt it.”
