PRISON officers fear reforms aimed at modernising the service could put lives at risk.

The Prison Service wants officers to agree on a long-term pay deal over three or five years, beginning in 12 months' time.

It is proposing to tie the deal in with a package of reforms aimed at modernising the service which the Prison Officers' Association (POA) says will cut costs and endanger prison staff.

These include plans to upgrade lower paid operational support workers to take on prison officer duties such as unlocking cells, escorting inmates and carrying out searches.

An independent pay review body, headed by Sir Toby Frere, has already made a series of recommendations and has said prison officers' pay should rise by 2.8 per cent.

Joe Simpson, chairman of the POA branch at Holme House Prison, in Stockton, said: "They are trying to de-skill our work. It is a cost-saver.

"This means, for instance, that you will have unskilled operational support workers unlocking cells on landings.

"They receive no training in control or restraint and would not be able to stop two people fighting, for instance, or have basic security knowledge."

He said that Holme House recently lost two fully qualified prison officers, while at the same time taking on an extra ten operational support workers.

The Prison Service took on an extra 642 support grade staff in 2001/2002.

Their duties can include bins and gate duties and shifts in prison control rooms.

Moves to reform the service come as prison officers are demanding a reduction in their weekly hours, from 39 to 37.

A Prison Service spokesman said: "Operational support undertake a narrow range of duties.

"The Prison Service wants to extend the range of duties they can carry out.

"But they would receive full training for what they were being asked to do, and an increase in salary."