More than 2,500 prison staff disciplined as drug use rises

THOUSANDS of prison staff have been subject to disciplinary action in the past five years, including for relationships with inmates, assaulting prisoners and racism.

A total of 2,666 prison staff in England and Wales were subject to disciplinary action between mid-2013 and mid-2018, according to data released under a Freedom of Information request submitted by The Guardian.

The most common reason for disciplinary action was breach of security, which can include bringing drugs and mobile phones into prisons, with 960 workers subject to this charge.

The Ministry of Justice disclosed that 204 staff were disciplined for assault or unnecessary use of force against prisoners, while 64 prison offers had inappropriate relationships with a prisoner. A further 19 prison staff were disciplined for racial harassment and 28 officers for trafficking.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “We do not hesitate to take action where there is evidence of misconduct.”

The Ministry of Justice is reportedly planning to launch a counter-corruption unit as the department battles with a fractious prison estate overcome with drugs, violence and poor mental health among inmates.

The most recent figures show that in the year to March 2018 the number of incidents in which drugs were found in prisons increased to 13,119, up a quarter year on year.

The number of mobile phone and SIM card discoveries increased by 15 per cent in the same period.

Peter Dawson, the director of the Prison Reform Trust and a former prison governor, said misconduct among prison staff was “massively” damaging.

“Staff bringing drugs in is probably the easiest way of bringing a large quantity of drugs into a prison.

“The more you tighten up other forms of getting drugs in, the more pressure staff will come under and the more they will look like the obvious way to achieve it.”