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Three decades of injustice and exploitation
Stripped of their industrial muscle and left at the mercy of ministers and management, prison officers have been pushed way beyond breaking point, warns STEVE GILLAN

THE Prison Officers Association (POA) has long warned it’s impossible for the government to build its way out of the prison capacity crisis.

Instead we believe the billions of pounds earmarked for new jails should be invested in the ones we already have and in community support to reduce offending.

It’s therefore disappointing that the new Labour government is continuing the Tories’ programme of building a new generation of mega-prisons, each holding up to 2,000 inmates and run by the private sector for profit, when we know smaller units run by the public sector for public good are far more effective in supporting rehabilitation.

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