Our prisons full ‘in five weeks’
BRITAIN’S prisons could be full within five weeks, a union boss has warned, as he hinted a strike ban could be breached if action is not taken to quell rising violence against staff.
Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “We currently have 1,400 spaces in the closed adult male estate, but the courts are sending people to prison at the rate of 250 to 300 per week.”
Even taking into account a new scheme to release people 70 days early, he noted that many ex-offenders are being recalled to England and Wales’s prisons – up to 100 a week in some areas. On Friday, Ministry of
Justice figures showed there were 88,914 prison spaces in England and Wales, mostly for men, with 87,177 of them filled.
It comes less than a fortnight after the National Police Chiefs’ Council withdrew an advisory to chief constables to delay “nonpriority arrests” to stave off overcrowding.
On May 21, Mr Fairhurst told the association’s conference that the Prison Service is in crisis due to a perfect storm of problems.
He first claimed there were 9,204 attacks on prison staff in 2023 compared to 2,848 in 2010 – and stated the Government has created only 5,000 of 20,000 new prison spaces promised by 2025.
As for staffing, he cautioned there are 23,640 operational prison officers, down from 24,831 in 2010 – while in the year to end of June 2023, 5,000 new officers were recruited and some 4,400 left the service.
He also hinted that if violence against staff is not reduced and officers in youth custody are not given PAVA spray to protect themselves, the union may breach a High Court injunction banning members from urging staff to ignore a 30-year ban on strike action.
On Labour revoking the ban if it wins on July 4, he told members: “My God, will I be inciting you...and if you don’t get a decent pay rise, I’ll be balloting you to strike.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said 6,000 new prison spaces had been created across two new jails, while other expansions and a third prison by the end of 2025 will raise this to 10,000 spaces.
He added: “We’re training prison staff on a voluntary basis to administer nasal naloxone in emergency situations.”
A Labour Party spokeswoman said: “The state of our prisons is a national scandal.”