‘PLEASE STOP STABBING EACH OTHER’
Prison boss in desperate plea to lags
A PRISON governor at a jail plagued by stabbings and riots has written to lags begging them to behave.
A wave of knife attacks on cons and staff has seen inmates dub HMP Swaleside in Kent “stabside” prison.
Riot police were called in to restore order at the jail on the Isle of Sheppey in December.
It came only a year after 60 inmates seized a wing and lit fires.
The dire situation has led governor Mark Icke to pen a plea for peace to the 1,100 inmates. The jail boss said Britain’s stabbings epidemic had spilled over into his prison, and he called on inmates to end the brutality.
In a desperate bid to stop the bloodshed he wrote: “It sincerely disappoints me that I feel the need to write to you regarding the levels of violence within our community at Swaleside.
“The amount of ‘prisoner on prisoner’ and ‘prisoner on staff’ violence is extremely upsetting and simply cannot continue. You might be surprised to know that I feel personal upset at each person who is harmed through a violent act.”
Referring to an explosion of knife crime in UK cities, he added: “I feel that the recent horrifying acts of violence within our communities are replicating themselves in our prison and our community.”
He told cons it would be naive to expect peace and harmony among men of all backgrounds and ethnicity, but that it was ‘a goal for the future’.
The governor revealed some gang members had been taught mediation techniques to help them steer clear of trouble. But the letter was mocked by inmates as being a “waste of time”. A source said: “The problem in Swaleside is drugs and gang rivalry. People want drugs because they’re hooked on substances like Spice or heroin substitutes like Subotex. There’s huge demand so it follows there’s huge supply.”
Attacks on inmates and staff at the jail have skyrocketed, with 305 logged instances of violence between 2015 and
2016. In 2017 it was revealed assaults have multiplied five times in as many years. The number of lags self-harming also soared, from 106 cases in 2015 to 278 the following year. Inspectors slammed the prison for the number of weapons and substances found by staff. A report declared an “unacceptable escalation of instability” at the jail.
In December 2016, 60 prisoners took over part of the prison for
12 hours. This month we revealed a warder was arrested for allegedly smuggling a drugs package the “size of a brick” into the jail. The most recent report on Swaleside, from 2017, says improvements have been made, but against a backdrop of “major permanent staff shortages, working with detached duty staff and with an exceptionally high sickness rate”.
The Prison Officers’ Association said: “Governors often send information to prisoners in writing, but this is a first.
“The Government must be held to account because it has been their slash and burn policy that has created the bloodbaths in our prisons.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We will always punish prisoners for being violent but it’s right that governors, who know their prison best, look for other ways to reduce violence.”