News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Prison bosses fear lags who ­speak Welsh are getting away with breaking rules.

Inmates at one of Wales’s biggest jails use their native tongue – and most guards there don’t understand the language.

So staff cannot be sure if convicts are ­masking illegal operations or breaching orders banning them from contacting victims or associates on the outside.

They are studying taped phone calls for phrases such as: “Ewch â fi allan yma,” meaning: “Get me out of here.”

All 1,300 cons at £220million HMP Berwyn, Wrexham – of whom 300 are Welsh – have access to a phone in cells.

(Image: Getty)

Every call by UK prisoners is recorded and checked, except for “privileged or confidential” ones to MPs and lawyers.

Scrutiny of the taped conversations in Welsh at Berwyn was stepped up after a jail watchdog warned of a security risk after a huge backlog built up.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke stated in the Independent Monitoring Board’s report on the jail: “Arrangements to conduct and review phone monitoring of inmates were ineffective and potentially put the public at risk.

"There was a two-month backlog of unmonitored calls. Where risk – such as a restraining order breach – was belatedly identified, it was not always referred to the police for investigation or to the prison’s internal disciplinary procedures for punishment.

“The jail had also struggled to have Welsh language phone calls translated.”

Berwyn bosses ordered “quick” action after the report and the number of hours of calls in Welsh yet to be checked is now down to 17 hours.

The Prison Service said last night: “The backlog of calls still to be heard has fallen significantly since the inspection.”

(Image: Getty)

Former Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws has told how Berwyn inmates felt “victimised” for using their native tongue.

She said some were told not to speak Welsh because guards were unable to understand them.

One lag interviewed for the report said he was told not to use it in talking to his dad during a jail visit.

He said: “I felt angry. Other people can use their own language.”

Ms Huws said: “I’m sad at this interference with prisoners’ freedom to use Welsh.”

Call Me Judith

The boss at a jail in the titles for TV’s Porridge has sparked soft justice fears by telling prisoners: “Call me Judith.”

Governor Judith Feline says guards and cons there all now go by their first name – including her, as she “can’t stand being called ma’am”.

The head of HMP Maidstone, Kent – housing 600 men, all foreigners – added: “Referring to a person as an inmate or offender defines them. Make life normal for people in custody and they’re more likely to leave as a law-abiding citizen.”

Local Marc Turner branded her “PC-driven” adding: “Inmates are not there to be pampered.”