One prison officer an hour is attacked by inmates as assaults hit a record high

PRISON officers are being attacked at a rate of one per hour in English and Welsh jails after the number of assaults leapt by more than a fifth in a year, Ministry of Justice figures reveal.

Attacks by inmates stood at 10,213 last year – about 27 a day – of which one in 10 was serious enough to require medical treatment for fractures, burns or bruising. Among the incidents was a 23-year-old officer who had his throat cut with a razor blade at HMP Nottingham and 13 officers who were taken to hospital after being attacked at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution. Assaults, including prisoners turning on each other, hit a record high of 34,000.

Rory Stewart, the prisons minister, acknowledged the assaults were unacceptably high but pointed to an apparent slowing in the rate towards the end of the year. Assaults on staff in the three months to December 2018 fell by 14 per cent to 2,349 from the previous quarter, the first quarterly drop in two years. Assaults in the three months to December last year also decreased by 11 per cent to 8,150 from the previous quarter.

However, the number of deaths in prison rose six per cent to 317 in the 12 months to March, of which three were homicides, down from five the previous year. Over the same period, there were 87 self-inflicted deaths, up 19 per cent from 73 in the previous year and 55,598 incidents of self-harm, up 25 per cent from the previous year.

Mr Stewart welcomed the quarterly drop in violence, but added: “There is still much to do and no one should underestimate the effort required to return long-term stability.”