POKEY NOT OK AS JAIL STAFF AXED
3 warders a week sacked
THREE prison staff are being sacked every week for fraud, having sex with inmates and corruption.
Ministry of Justice figures have revealed 1,121 warders and other employees were sacked for misconduct between 2014 and 2020.
Forty-three were given the boot for “inappropriate” relationships with cons and more than 500 were let go for “breach of security”, “performance of duties”, “bringing discredit on Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service” and “professional misconduct”.
Others were fired for sleeping on duty, sexual harassment and using “unnecessary force”.
Lauren Mcintyre, a warder at HMP Albany on the Isle of Wight, was jailed for three years after a four-month affair with double murderer Andrew Roberts.
In February 2020, Stephanie Smithwhite, 40, was jailed for two years for having an affair with notorious gangster and drug dealer Curtis “Cocky” Warren, 56, at the maximum-security HMP Frankland near Durham.
At her trial, she denied cutting a hole in the trousers of her uniform for a sexual purpose, but the judge said it was difficult to imagine why else it was there.
The figures reveal that since 2014, 13,432 prison staff have been investigated for alleged offences.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “The vast majority of staff carry out their duties to the high standards the public rightly expect, but the small minority who fall short are held to account.”