MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice
Secretary, responding to the latest
Safety in Custody Statistics said:
“Tory austerity is squarely to blame for this unprecedented
wave of violence and self-harm in our
prisons.
“It is a national scandal that there is an assault every 20
minutes in one of our prisons, that a member of prison staff is
attacked every hour and that self-harm is at a new record
high.
“The Tories need to take responsibility for these failures,
but their actions so far have been woefully inadequate. Instead
of more tinkering at the edges, at next week's Budget they should
launch an emergency plan with substantial new Treasury funds to
tackle the widespread understaffing and overcrowding that has
made our prisons a danger to the officers, inmates and wider
society.
“Anything less will see prison violence continue to spiral
out of control.”
Ends
NOTES
· Safety
in custody quarterly bulletin: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-june-2018
· There
were 32,559 assault incidents in the 12 months to June 2018, up
20% from the previous year.
· There
were 9,485 assaults on staff in the 12 months to June 2018, up
27% from the previous year.
· Self-harm
is at all-time high: 49,565 incidents, up 20%.
