The former Conservative Party deputy chairman, Jeffrey Archer, was yesterday transferred from the high security Belmarsh prison in southeast London to a lower category prison in Norfolk.
It had been expected that prisoner FF8282 would serve the next stage of his four-year sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice at a prison on the Isle of Wight. But after several prison vans left Belmarsh in different directions yesterday morning, the Prison Service confirmed Archer had been transferred to Wayland Prison, a Category C institution, near Thetford in Norfolk.
Archer's family was anxious a move to the Isle of Wight would involve long journeys from their home in Grantchester, near Cambridge, and it was reported that the millionaire author had lodged an appeal against the transfer.
The move to Wayland, the prison where Reggie Kray spent the final months of his life sentence for murder before being released on compassionate grounds last year, means Lady Archer face only a 45-minute drive to the prison.
Archer was originally registered as a Category D prisoner. As a low-risk inmate it had been expected that he would serve his sentence in an open prison. However, following a decision to launch an investigation into his charitable work for Iraqi Kurds in 1991, Archer's security rating was upgraded to Category C and will be continually reviewed. The security rating means a prisoner cannot be trusted in open prison conditions while recognising that the inmate does not have the will or resources to make a determined escape attempt.
At Wayland there is an emphasis on work and education. Archer will be unlocked from his cell at 8.15 a.m. He can eat all his meals in his cell and will be allowed to work in one of the prison's workshops, which include woodwork, tailoring and painting and decorating, or he can work as a cleaner. He can earn up to £7.50 sterling a week for his work and, depending on his behaviour, he can spend up to £15 a week of his own money and he will be allowed two hours' association with other prisoners between 6.00 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.
If he chooses, he can study for GCSEs in English and maths and he will be allowed two visits a month, for about two hours at a time.
Mr Mark Leech, chief executive of the ex-offenders' group Unlock, said he believed Archer's associates had secured favourable treatment for him.
"He has been very fortunate not only to be sent to a jail near his home but also in record time," he said. "Someone is clearly pulling strings for him. You would normally be in Belmarsh for the best part of six months and I'm sure there are people there who have been waiting many, many weeks for a place at Wayland."
Prisoners think Wayland is a "very cushy number".
Recently retired Chief Inspector of Prisons Sir David Ramsbotham said after his last visit there in 1999 that Wayland was "a thoroughly healthy prison" and "an example of all that is best in HM Prison Service".
One of the criticisms raised in his report was that vegetarian prisoners found their food was "gritty because the vegetables were not washed properly" - a stark comparison with some of the inspector's comments about barbaric conditions in other institutions.