LONDON (AFP) - Life in British prisons is so comfortable that inmates have given up trying to escape, a senior prison officers' representative said Friday.

Glyn Travis, assistant general secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, said people had even broken into one jail to deliver drugs and mobile phones to inmates.

He denied his claims were simply an attempt to put political pressure on the government to increase staffing levels. His union argues that cost-cutting has left prisons dangerously understaffed.

"We have got no-go areas in certain prisons because prisoners have got complete control. There is not sufficient staff, there is no interaction between staff," Travis told BBC radio.

"We have got a serious crisis in our prisons today, but unfortunately prisons are not a vote-winner, so we are a soft target for the government to force its fiscal policy on public servants."

Travis said intruders had entered the low-security Everthorpe jail in Yorkshire, northern England, by scaling a wall using ladders and he said cases had been uncovered of prostitutes entering open prison to service inmates.

He said the inmates in Everthorpe had been happy to remain inside despite having the opportunity to escape.

"These were prisoners who have a history of escaping from lawful custody, and the prisoners did not take the opportunity or plan to escape because, we believe, life is so cushy in the prison system," he said.

"If members of the public can put ladders up against fences during nighttime, then they can do it during daytime, and at that time it can become quite easy for any prisoner to escape lawful custody.

"Throughout the day, prisoners will have access to the grounds, where they will be walking round unsupervised and if they had wanted to leave custody, they could have quite easily done so."

Travis blamed the problems in jails on chronic under-staffing.

"We have got a massive shortfall of staff. We are 1,000 prison officers short across the country.

"There is a serious recruitment problem," he said.

A Prison Service spokesman told the BBC that in the Everthorpe incident, "at no time were prisoners out of their cells or able to access any other areas of the prison.

"Immediate action was taken with extra fencing, the removal of trees, extra CCTV cameras, and the transfer of the offender involved to another establishment."