POA comments on prison safety

The constant rise in violence and failure to provide safe and secure prisons, the Government and Heads of HMPPS remain under pressure as last week’s data from prisons in England and Wales is not good reading.

Following another week when prisons have again been in the news for all the wrong reasons and the Justice Minister has talked about extending the use of in-cell telephones and laptops to prisoners, Leaders of the POA highlight the unprecedented levels of violence, self-harm and deaths.

In the last seven days there were 31 Prisoner on prisoner assaults, many involving homemade weapons, 8 prisoners were escorted to local hospitals placing increasing pressure on an overstretched NHS.

In the same period 17 members of staff were the victim of unprovoked assaults some of these serious. 9 members of staff had to attend A&E for treatment with 8 receiving local assistance from the prison healthcare. 

Last week there were 6 reported deaths in custody and a significant number of prisoner self-harm incidents reported. In addition, the number of reported incidents at height was 18. These incidents are stretching the prison system to breaking point.