Nearly one attack on jail staff every day

SCOTLAND’s jails are in the grip of a violence epidemic – with attacks on staff at their highest level for several years.

An officer is assaulted almost every day and the number of serious prisoner-on-staff attacks north of the Border has tripled in a year.

The spike comes as growing numbers of Scottish Prison Service (SPS) employees are signed off sick.

Prison bosses have blamed the surge in violence on the growing use behind bars of psychoactive substances or ‘legal highs’ – such as Spice – and an increase in the number of gangland figures held in custody.

However, concerns were raised last night that not enough is being done to safeguard staff working within Scotland’s 15 prisons.

The SPS annual report released last week shows 2,564 assaults were carried out in Scottish prisons last year – compared with 2,400 the previous year.

Prison staff were attacked almost 300 times between March last year and March this year – a

‘No wonder more staff are signed off sick’

51 per cent increase on 2016-17, when there were 198 recorded prisoner on staff assaults.

The number of serious prisoneron-staff assaults increased threefold from five to 14 over the same period. The majority of attacks – 88 per cent – happened in closed male jails.

Addressing the increase in staff assaults, the SPS report states: ‘There are a number of factors that influence the increase in violence against staff. These include an increase in Serious Organised Crime Group [offenders] held in custody, an increase in the number of people being managed under the influence of unknown substances which can result in an increase in reactive violence, and the management of people with mental health issues.’

The SPS report also lists the average number of working days lost to sickness per employee, which rose from 11.8 to 14.2 between 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Mental ill-health accounted for 11 per cent of short-term and 37 per cent of long-term absences in 2017/18.

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: ‘With violence on the rise, it is no wonder we are seeing more prison staff signed off sick. The new Justice Secretary [Humza Yousaf] needs to take a very close look at the circumstances behind this rise and ensure that this is a one-year aberration, not the beginning of an upwards trend.’

An SPS spokesman said: ‘The number of prisoner on staff assaults has risen but remains small. However, one assault on our staff is one too many.’