AT LEAST four prisoners from Darwin have staged a brazen reverse jailbreak.

The convicts are suspected of repeatedly escaping the prison, partying with their girlfriends, and breaking back into the jail, in the hope that no one would notice, the ABC reports.

The prisoners’ scheme was revealed when authorities checked the headcount at a work release centre at the Darwin Correctional Centre in Berrimah.

“It would appear that a couple of prisoners have jumped the fence but returned,” a Northern Territory Correctional Services Department spokesman told the ABC.

Authorities suspect that the prisoners conspired to jump a cyclone fence, get picked up from the main road by their partners, get drunk and stoned, and then return to their cells a few hours later.

The jig was up when prison guards found five drunk prisoners fighting over a mobile phone in the early hours of July 20.

“At approximately 12.35am, prison officers on a routine night security patrol responded to what appeared to be yelling and fighting in one of the rooms,” the department said in a statement.

“Five prisoners were found to be in various states of inebriation and were allegedly fighting over a mobile phone.

“It is alleged that four of the prisoners had earlier climbed a perimeter fence to retrieve contraband items from someone on the outside.

“All five prisoners were breath-tested and returned positive results and were immediately transferred to the main prison’s maximum-security section.”

A search uncovered other contraband items, including empty bottles of alcohol, five mobile phones, phone chargers, a small quantity of a “green, leafy substance”, a cigarette lighter and rolling papers.

The men have now been transferred to the prison’s maximum security section.

The revelations follows news yesterday that two dangerous inmates had broken out of jails in Western Australia and Victoria.

An internal investigation into Darwin’s reverse jailbreak has begun.

“(Police) will come back with recommendations as to what charges will be laid,” the department spokesman said.

“It will be up to police to determine what constitutes an escape.”

Charges are likely to be laid after the police investigation has been completed.