[4] Paul Robson, who was jailed for life in 2000 for violent sexual assaults, and had been refused parole five times, absconded from the prison in February 2022.

[6] In April 2007, Channel 4 TV's Dispatches documentary series broadcast film secretly recorded at North Sea Camp by a prisoner, Dafydd Evans.

Lord Ramsbotham, a former Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales, was quoted in the programme as saying: "It is not secure; it’s under-staffed, it’s under-resourced and you’ve got a lot of people who quite frankly should not be in those conditions.

Responding to the programme, the Home Office said open prisons played an important role in rehabilitating offenders and all those transferred to such conditions were risk-assessed.

Inspectors praised the prison's safety record, and the amount of purposeful activity for inmates.