Jail’s in crisis
Sentenced to rot away
had under six months in service. Eight had done between six months and a year, half a dozen 12-18 months and 69 were senior officers there for 18 months or more.
We can also reveal drugs and mobile phone seizures reached record highs before the Government stepped in.
Nationally across all prisons, a total of 15,036 phones were seized in the 12 months to March while 9,345 SIM cards were found.
Videos are also appearing on social media showing violence inside and inmates passed out after taking drugs. One clip shows a man choking another prisoner until he is unconscious as inmates watch and laugh.
Other clips shows inmates passed in their cells.
A former Birmingham inmate told the Sunday People: “It was like the prisoners have got the upper hand.
“A few of the officers got a real kicking and it is like they cannot not be bothered or could not find the strength to enforce any kind of order. “Being away for six months and then going back in I see the deterioration. There is s**t everywhere on the landings, flies, cockroaches and the smell is rank when it gets hot.
“A lot of prisoners do not leave their cells because it is not safe. People are eating their dinner in their cells, which stink anyway. It was just disgusting.”
Another former prison inmate Darren Sanders, 46, who served time in HMP Woodhill, Bucks, said: “There’s a lot of violence.
“There were four lads in one cell and one of them was getting battered.
“He was on Spice. The staff just turn a blind eye.”
The minister for courts and justice, Rory Stewart, has pledged to resign if his campaign to tackle violence and drugs in struggling jails fails. G4S spokesman Jerry Petherick said: “The figures demonstrate strong intelligence systems that are in place to intercept contraband.
“Our staff perform regular searches to seize illicit items.”
Most recent figures show there are 19,925 full-time officers to look after 83,000 prisoners.
The starting salary for a prison officer is £20,750. BRITAIN’S crumbling prisons have almost 80,000 outstanding repairs.
Broken plumbing, heating and electrics are putting inmates’ lives at risk every day.
And the latest figures show that at least a third of the decrepit jails are contracted out to the private maintenance firm Amey.
Almost all the rest were being taken care of by collapsed contracting firm Carillion – and are now directly handled by the Government.
Failed
Labour’s shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said: “Once again we see the disastrous effects of the Conservatives’ obsession with privatisation. “The contract to outsource maintenance works, worth hundreds of millions of pounds, failed to deliver the savings promised.” Amey said: “We have worked to improve the prison estate since we took the contract. “We are committed to providing a service that ensures the welfare of prisoners and value for the taxpayer.” The Ministry of Justice added: “We are working with all providers to improve performance, including ensuring tasks are signed off once completed.”