Assaults and escapes on the rise in prisons

PRISONS in England and Wales are in a state of “emergency” after the Ministry of Justice revealed violence, drug abuse and absconding are all on the rise.

Assaults on prison staff surged to 9,003, a record high and up by more than a quarter year on year, while prisoner-on-prisoner attacks increased by 16 per cent to 22,374. The overall number of prison assaults in the 12 months to March 2018 was 31,025, a 16 per cent increase on the previous year and also a record high.

As well as rising levels of violence, there is a growing problem with contraband with increases in the number of incidents when drugs (23 per cent), mobile phones (15 per cent) and SIM cards (13 per cent) were found and a rise in the number of prisoners absconding – with 139 were recorded in the year ending March 2018, an annual increase of 53.

More than one in 10 prisons were rated as having performance of serious concern in 2017-18, the highest since 2011-12.

It comes as David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, announces today he is stepping in to stop privatised probation services from collapsing.

The system was partially privatised in 2014 by Chris Grayling with Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts handed out to businesses to supervise low and medium-risk offenders.

But the contracts failed to accurately predict how many people the CRCS would have to deal with, which has resulted in them receiving less funding than they had anticipated.

The companies will now have their contracts brought to an end two years early in 2020 with a modified version of the current system to then be rolled out.

The Government is also waiving £115million worth of penalties due to be paid by CRCS for poor performance to keep them afloat, with an additional £22 million of funding to be allocated in each of the next two years to improve services as part of an overall “stabilisation” package worth £170million.

Mr Gauke said “sensible reforms” could solve the problems facing probation services and that “ripping it all up and starting again” was not necessary.