Fears for inmate safety at ‘disgusting’Welsh jail
CONDITIONS at Swansea’s overcrowded prison have been labelled “disgusting”, with claims that prisoners are often in “lockdown”.
Now serious concerns have been raised over the safety of inmates.
There are also claims that prisoners are often confined to their cells for the entire weekend due to a lack of staff – although these claims are disputed by the prison service, which points out there has not been an incident of lockdown since May 2016.
The prison was labelled a “pressure cooker” by a Welsh mental health charity.
“The stories I hear from different sources who have been in prison is that very often on the weekend prisoners are locked up from Friday afternoon to Monday morning through lack of staff,” Alun Davies, of the mental health charity Hafal, told BBC Wales’ Newyddion 9.
“It’s the only safe way in which staff can function when they’re short-staffed.
“That’s not supposed to happen at all, they are supposed to have interactions with each other at various times of the day, and it goes without saying that situations like that form a pressure cooker, and things could easily get out of hand.”
Despite this, the Prison Service said HMP Swansea is fully staffed thanks to a recent programme to boost recruitment.
Swansea prison is the third most overcrowded prison in England and Wales, with 438 inmates – it was originally designed for 268.
The number of incidents of selfharm at Swansea prison have quadrupled, and there have been three suicides over the past three years, according to latest figures from the Howard League for Penal Reform.
Between 2013 and 2016 the rate of self-harm incidents at Swansea Prison rose from 34 to 149.
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League, labelled the situation in Swansea as “really disgusting”.
“It’s smelly, people can’t get showers, they’ve got nothing to do, they get very little food,” she said.
“Of course, there’s going to be, as a result of that, deteriorating mental health. There’s going to be drugs and violence and assaults, and it puts the staff at serious risk.”
A Prison Service spokesman said: “Transforming prisons into places of safety and reform is our top priority and we are tackling the challenges we face head-on. We have also seen a reduction in violence following the introduction of body-worn cameras.
“We are also transforming the wider prison estate and investing £1.3bn to deliver up to 10,000 new places – replacing older sites with high-quality modern establishments.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said there were 162 staff in post, adding: “It is untrue to say that the prison has been in lockdown.
“There has been no incidents of lockdown since May 2016.
“HMP Swansea has improved drug detection rates through the use of specially trained drug dogs.”
The current population at Swansea prison is 438, with the capacity of 268.