Prisons crisis: Now violence and deaths hit record levels

THE scale of the prisons crisis was exposed yesterday after official figures showed violence, assaults on guards, selfharm and deaths have all surged to record levels.

Violent attacks in jails now take place at an average rate of once every 16 minutes, according to the Ministry of Justice’s latest ‘safety in custody’ statistics.

They also reveal a 27 per cent increase in the number of assaults on staff, with prison officers routinely stabbed, bottled or beaten.

Justice Secretary David Gauke said the levels of violence were ‘unacceptable’ – and insisted he was taking action to tackle the scandal.

The ministry has admitted the disorder has been fuelled by a rise in the availability of so-called ‘zombie drug’ Spice, an increase in gang culture and cuts in officer numbers.

Overall assaults on staff and inmates rose 20 per cent in the year to June to a record 32,559 – about one every 16 minutes.

This includes 9,485 attacks on guards, a 27 per cent increase.

Serious violence against staff, which often involve the victim being taken to hospital, were up 19 per cent as offenders become increasingly aggressive.

Incidents of self-harm soared by a fifth to an all-time high of 49,565. The number of deaths in jails also jumped to 325 in the year to September – the highest on record and twice that of six years ago.

This includes five homicides – up from three the previous year. Over the same period there were 87 suicides, up from 78. The rest were from natural or ‘other’ causes. The spiralling violence and misery comes despite a fall in the number of inmates to 83,000. But the number of frontline officers has plunged from 25,000 in 2010 to 21,600 in June after cuts to prison budgets.

Prison reform campaigners seized on the figures as fresh evidence the crisis was ‘spiralling out of control’.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: ‘This is yet another shameful set of statistics that shows the sheer scale of the bloodshed.’

The ministry said there has been a change in how assaults on personnel are recorded – including all staff, not just officers – which may have contributed to the increase.

Mr Gauke said: ‘I have been clear in my absolute determination to bring down the unacceptable levels of violence in our prisons.’