MORE than 10,000 prison officers were attacked in overcrowded jails in England and Wales in the last year — an increase of almost one-third — new figures revealed today.
Of the 10,281 assaulted, the highest number for 20 years, nearly 1,000 prison officers suffered serious injuries needing medical treatment or hospitalisation.
The “serious” injuries include fractures, burns, extensive bruising, black eyes, broken noses and teeth, cuts, bites, temporary or permanent blindness and sexual assault.
The POA said it had repeatedly warned of increasing levels of violence as prisons struggled to cope with the numbers incarcerated.
POA general secretary Steve Gillan said: “These are truly shocking figures.
“The POA has been warning for years that our prisons are in crisis.
“Our members are not punchbags and the risk now to our members at work are worse and it is something we are not prepared to stand by and idly watch.”
Industrial action by prison officers was made unlawful in 1993, but Mr Gillan warned: “Either government takes our concerns seriously or we will make them listen.
“No-one goes to work to be assaulted, not now or in the future.”
The union will meet Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood on November 7.
Self-harm incidents in jails also hit a 20-year record high of 76,365 — up 19 per cent.
The Prison Governors Association said the levels of violence were “indicative of the current crisis in our prisons.”
Prison Reform Trust chief executive Pia Sinha said: “These shocking figures underline the very human consequences of the severe pressures the prison system is under.”
Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said the Labour government had “taken urgent action to save the prison system from the point of collapse” and would “make the reforms necessary so that prisons are safer and make better citizens, not better criminals.”
Hundreds of rehabilitated offenders saw an end to their long-abolished indefinite prison sentences under laws that came into force today.
The change in rules will affect some criminals who were handed controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences and mean their licence period comes to an end, giving them a defined finish date for their sentence for the first time.
But amid the overcrowding crisis in prisons, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies charity director Richard Garside warned the work to release people serving IPP sentences was moving at a glacial pace.
