Attacks on jail staff by inmates at county prison are at record high
ASSAULTS on staff at HMP Leicester hit another record high last year – with two attacks a week on average at the prison.
Staff were assaulted 112 times at Leicester prison in 2017, the highest figure on record for the facility in figures going back to the year 2000.
This was up 44 per cent on the 78 attacks recorded in 2016, which was itself a record.
Assaults on staff have soared at the prison in recent years. As recently as 2014 there were just 34 assaults on employees at HMP Leicester – meaning in the space of just four years the number of assaults has soared by almost 330 per cent.
This rise can’t be explained by a rising prison population – the figures show that HMP Leicester’s average population fell from 361 in 2013/14 to 325 in 2016/17.
Eight assaults on staff last year were classed as “serious”. These can include anything that requires a hospital stay, sexual assaults, bites, stabbings and similar nasty injuries.
There were also 132 prisoner-onprisoner assaults at HMP Leicester in 2017, one fewer than the record for the facility.
Nationally, there were 21,270 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and 8,429 on staff in 2017 – both record highs by some distance.
Those figures rose 11 and 23 per cent respectively.
The Ministry of Justice says urgent action is being taken nationally to address a level of assaults it admits is too high.
They add violence against staff will never be tolerated and when incidents occur, they will always work closely with the police to push for the strongest possible punishments. But they also say there was a change in the way assaults are reported in April 2017, which may have contributed to the rise. Justice Secretary David Gauke said: “The levels of violence, suicide and selfharm in our prisons are far too high and we are taking urgent action to address these problems.
“Assaults on our hardworking staff will never be tolerated.
“We are ensuring prison officers have the tools they need to do the job, rolling out body-worn cameras, ‘police-style’ handcuffs and restraints, and trialling Pava incapacitant spray.
“Our recruitment drive is vital to ensuring prisons are safe, secure and decent so they can successfully rehabilitate offenders, and 90 per cent of our additional 3,111 prison officers are due to be on landings by the summer.”
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The explosion in the use of additional days of imprisonment, together with the growing number of assaults and incidents of self-injury, is a symptom of a prison system in crisis.
“The Howard League’s research has revealed the scale of the problem, and we are leading the push to solve it. We have raised this with ministers, prison governors and Ministry of Justice officials, as well as hearing from officials in Scotland, where the imposition of additional days has been abolished.
“What we need now is political stability and bold action to make prisons safer.
“Ultimately, positive steps to reduce the prison population would save lives, protect staff and stop others being swept into deeper currents of crime, violence and despair.”