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IF MINISTERS won’t act on Britain’s prison meltdown the union will, the Prison Officers Association (POA) declared yesterday.
General secretary Steve Gillan said he was not prepared to let his members “get their heads kicked in every day” amid spiralling prison violence, throwing down the gauntlet to ministers over their chaotic mismanagement of the penal system.
Prison service employees, along with the police and armed forces, are banned from taking industrial action.
Long-term underfunding and state neglect, while simultaneously probation services have been undermined, have intensified the prison crises, argues SOLOMON HUGHES
With the agitated debate now raging in the media about the early release schemes, Prison Officers Association general secretary STEVE GILLAN gives the view of those who work in the sector
Our members face serious violence, crumbling workplaces and exposure to dangerous drugs — it is outrageous we still cannot legally use our industrial muscle to fight back and defend ourselves, writes STEVE GILLAN