Sharp rise in assaults on prison staff across Yorkshire, new figures show

Despite this several prisons in Yorkshire, such as HMP Hatfield in Doncaster and HMP Wakefield, the category A prison known as Monster Mansion, had only one space available.

In the year preceding this, new figures from the Liberal Democrats found a staggering rise in assaults on staff and fights amongst prisoners.

All prisons in Yorkshire saw an increase in attacks on prison officers in 2023, apart from HMP Wealstun, the latest data available.

At HMP Wakefield, assaults on staff by prisoners tripled, becoming the highest level on record.

At the same time, the number of fights among inmates is also on the rise.

At the Monster Mansion, there was a prisoner fight at least every day of 2023, while that figure doubled at HMP Hull and HMP Humber.

Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson, Josh Babarinde MP, said: “The Conservatives have left our prisons in utter chaos.

“With this staggering number of assaults and rates of re-offending through the roof, the Conservatives have left a system that is failing prison staff, failing victims, and failing our communities.

“Their neglect of our justice system is unforgivable, and their former ministers should hang their heads in shame for this shambolic legacy.

“This is a crisis that needs to be gripped by the new government with the utmost urgency. It is no wonder that hard-working prison officers are leaving in their droves when many drive to work fearing they may leave in the back of an ambulance.

“The new government must come forward with an urgent plan to make our prisons safer. They must recruit and retain more prison officers, tackle the criminal courts backlog, and invest properly in rehabilitation to reduce re-offending.”

Last month, the Government pledged to build 14,000 new prison places by 2031 as part of a £2.3 billion plan to tackle the overcrowding crisis.

This includes opening four new prisons over the next seven years, which will create 6,400 new places.

One of these will be HMP Millsike, an all electric category C jail, that is being built next to HMP Sutton in east Yorkshire. This was announced by the Tories, and will open this year.

However, even with these new prisons, Ms Mahmood revealed that the country will run out of places for convicted criminals.

She said that the sentencing review, led by former Tory Justice Secretary David Gauke, would serve as a separate way of freeing up places.

She added: “Even with the new supply that we are building, we are still going to run out of prison places because the demand into the system is much higher than the building that is being planned.

"We simply cannot build our way out of this problem, so in order to make sure there’s always a prison place for the people that need to be locked up … we do have to have an independent review of sentencing.”