Officers foil prisoners' escape plan

Prison officers have foiled plans by four prisoners to escape from a NSW jail after finding a rope ladder and grappling hook hidden in a laundry bag.

Officers at the Mid-North Coast Correctional Centre at Kempsey discovered the rope ladder and a rope made of sheets on Friday, NSW Corrective Services said.

The escape equipment also included a crudely constructed grappling hook, to help the prisoners scale the jail walls.

They were found in a laundry bag in one of the cells, a Corrective Services spokeswoman said.

"There was a half-made rope ladder and a makeshift rope with a bit of plastic tubing on it as a grappling hook," she said.

"It was only half made, but that's what it appears to have been."

Three of the men have now been moved to different NSW jails, she said.

AAP