PRISONS should not be “run for profit,” POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst said today after the government announced that it was placing a prison contract under public control.

The Ministry of Justice said that HM Prison and Probation Service has agreed terms with Sodexo for HMP Lowdham Grange following the company’s failure to run the site.

Speaking to the Morning Star at the prison officers’ union conference in Eastbourne, Mr Fairhurst said: “Sodexo has only been operating for a few months before we have to take back control.

“It highlights that if you incarcerate people, then the state should look after them.

“And we can prove time and time again that the public sector are the best people to look after our prisons.”

Mr Fairhurst said the whole prison system should be renationalised to allow better pay, pensions, working conditions and increased staffing levels.

He said: “We’ve got recognition rights in several private-sector jails because they realise the value of working with us to keep their prisons safe.

“But it’s no secret … that we want all jails brought back into the public sector because we don’t believe that you should run a prison for profit.”