Thousands of prison staff and inmates attacked in North East prisons

Since 2012-13, an average of at least 22 attacks every week have been recorded in prisons across the North East and North Yorkshire.

And the lifting of lockdown restrictions in the region’s jails has sparked a leap in assaults, new figures suggest.

Prisons in our region recorded more than 2,000 assaults on prison officers and staff in the past decade, including hundreds of serious attacks.

And prisoner on prisoner attacks were recorded over 9,200 times during the same period.

But violence plummeted by nearly half during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, when inmates were confined to their cells during prison lockdowns.

Read more: Alleged rapists bailed for more than a year as court cases pile up

The easing of restrictions, however, was followed by a stark rise in assaults, with almost 1,000 incidents logged in the year to March – up 14 per cent on the year before.

Assault rates are rising again at prisons across the region

The Howard League for Penal Reform suggested the increase could be linked to the physical and mental toll of the pandemic on prisoners.

A recent report prepared by the Prison Officers Association, seen by The Northern Echo, suggests chaos had become accepted by many as simply part of life for those living and working in prisons.

It said staff shortages and changes to working practices in recent years had combined to become a “recipe for disaster”, leading to prison regimes operating with sometimes unsafe staffing levels.

“In effect,” the report says, “we lost control of prisons and chaos took hold and was widespread.”

It added: “On the back of the chaos came the increase in violence which in turn impacted negatively on all the other measures linked to prison safety.

“It resulted in huge numbers of our members and prisoners being seriously assaulted, with many of our members having to leave the service.”

However, the report said lockdown had helped to almost eradicate the chaos behind bars, with prison safety levels improving as a result.

It warned that jail regimes should not be allowed to “drift back to the pre-pandemic model” and said 2022 represented a once in a lifetime opportunity to introduce fundamental change.

Forward planning, more constructive and rehabilitative activities for inmates and realistic staffing levels were suggested as improvements.

Andrew Neilson from the Howard League said: “The number of assaults fell over the course of the pandemic, but at an enormous cost.

“Strict restrictions saw people locked in cells for 23 hours a day, for months on end.”

“What we are seeing now, with the increase in cases of assault, may be the physical and mental toll of those restrictions, as prisoners are now slowly being eased back into pre-pandemic regimes.”

Ministry of Justice data for six of the region’s prisons shows the assault rate rose last year, though it is yet to hit pre-pandemic levels.

In March, there was the equivalent of 254 assaults for every 1,000 prisoners at HMP Durham; 104 for every 1,000 at HMP Frankland, 144 at Holme House, 35 at Kirklevington prison, 88 at Northumberland’s jail and 405 for every 1,000 inmates held at Low Newton.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said assault rates across the country had fallen since 2019-20.

Prison officers across England and Wales have been given more than 6,000 body worn video cameras and the use of a synthetic pepper spray is also currently being rolled out to protect staff and prisoners from incidents of serious violence.

Read next:

• 25 child rapes reported every week in the North East
• Rapes and blackmail among crimes linked to the dark side of online dating
• LGBT+ hate crime doubles in the North East

Are you a prisoner or former inmate? An ex or current prison officer? If you'd like to share your real life story of life behind bars, email joanna.morris@newsquest.co.uk. 

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