Shock figures reveal assaults on prison guards have soared by 43% over the last year
Justice Secretary Liz Truss admits the figures “demonstrate the serious violence” present behind bars
ASSAULTS on prison staff have soared by a record 43 per cent over the last year, shock figures revealed today.
Under fire prison guards were attacked 5,954 times in the 12 months to June up from 4,177 the previous year.
And almost 700 serious assaults on prison guards were recorded according to the official Ministry of Justice figures.
Their report, which follows repeated warnings about safety in jails across England and Wales, sparked claims of a “hidden emergency” in prisons.
Justice Secretary Liz Truss admitted the figures “demonstrated the serious violence” present behind bars.
Mark Day, of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “The figures reveal a hidden emergency unfolding in our prison system.
“This cannot be allowed to become the new normal.
“The Government’s forthcoming prison safety and reform plan must get to grips with a dangerously deteriorating situation. The lives of people who live and work in prison depend on it.”
The report said the growing numbers of assaults in the last four years coincided with “major changes to the regime, operating arrangement and culture in public sector prisons”.
And it blamed the influx of “legal highs” as a major contributor to jail violence.
It went on: “For example, restructuring of the prison estate including staff reductions, which have reduced overall running costs, and an increasing awareness of gang culture and illicit psychoactive drugs in prisons.
“As well as the dangers to both physical and mental health, trading in these illicit drugs can lead to debt, violence and intimidation.”
Deaths in custody were also up by 21 per cent with 324 deaths in police custody.
Self-harming went up by more than a quarter to a new peak.
And despite a series of falls in recent years, violence in women’s prisons is on the rise.
In the year to June there were 269 attacks on staff in female establishments, the highest number for the equivalent period in seven years.
The MoJ figures also showed 107 suicides.