Guards given banter lessons to avoid upsetting prisoners

PRISON officers have attended “banter workshops” to learn how not to offend inmates, a report has revealed.

Bosses at HMP Moorland, near Hatfield Woodhouse in South Yorkshire, sent 16 members of staff on the course as part of its equality and diversity programme.

A report on the jail, which has the capacity to hold 1,000 prisoners, released this week by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) stated that the workshops were aimed at educating staff on what banter was and was not appropriate.

A prison source said staff needed to be clear that references to a prisoner’s “protected characteristics” which included sexual orientation, disability, age, weight or nationality could expose them to complaints under equality legislation.

He said: “You certainly can’t make any jokes about someone’s weight or nationality, and any reference to disability or religion is a complete no-no. You can hardly even take the mick out of the football team someone supports.”

Workplace experts, however, say some banter can be positive by reducing stress and defusing tensions, but those on the receiving end need to be on the “same wavelength” as those dispensing it.

The workshops were introduced after 51 complaints were made in the course of a year. Eighteen related to staff and 33 were against prisoners.

Fourteen of the complaints were reviewed by the IMB, the majority of which complied with the prison’s discrimination incident report form guidance.

In its report, the IMB concluded: “Moorland prison has online equality and diversity training for staff, with 49 staff completing this within the past year. During the year, 16 staff attended ‘banter’ workshops, discussing when ‘banter’ may be deemed offensive/discriminatory.”

John Kahn, an anti-bullying practitioner, said there were three types of banter. The first “friendly” type was harmless fun, with jokes not causing upset of any kind.

The second was ignorant banter where a comment hurts someone’s feelings without intention.

The third was malicious banter when somebody makes a comment that knowingly humiliates or hurts the feelings of someone else.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “This short training helps us keep staff so that we can rehabilitate more offenders and ultimately cut crime.”

‘You can’t make jokes about someone’s weight and references to disability or religion is a no-no’