Violent attacks on inmates and staff '˜being downplayed or ignored' at Yorkshire prison

A new report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has highlighted ongoing problems at HMP Doncaster.

It said: “Due to nation-wide budgetary cuts, the number of front-line prison officers in English prisons has dropped by some 30 per cent over three years, while the number of inmates has continued to rise.

“The delegation observed that operational safety had been compromised in part due to low staffing levels or inadequate deployment of staff on wings.”

It said the situation in Doncaster was “jeopardising the safety of the young adults held there” and the committee called for an immediate review into increasing staffing levels.

Members of the committee, which is part of the Council of Europe, visited HMP Doncaster and HMP Pentonville as part of their inquiry last spring.

The report said: “It was deeply concerned by the amount of severe generalised violence evident in each of the prisons visited, notably inter-prisoner violence and attacks by prisoners on staff.

“Injuries to both prisoners and staff, documented over the previous three months, included among other things cases of scalding water being thrown over victims and ‘shank’ (make-shift knife) wounds, and frequently required hospitalisation and in one case resulted in the death of an inmate.”

The assessment said that at both establishments, the delegation “gained the impression that the actual number of violent incidents appreciably exceeded the number recorded”.

It added: “This issue appeared to be particularly acute at Doncaster Prison, where the delegation established that some violent incidents had either not been recorded or recorded as being less serious than they were in practice.

“Moreover, the delegation observed first-hand that violent incidents were not always reported by staff.

“While the number of recorded violent incidents at all prisons visited was alarmingly high, the CPT believes that these figures under-record the actual number of incidents and consequently fail to afford a true picture of the severity of the situation.”

The Prison Officers’ Association today told the Yorkshire Post staff feel “unsafe” as budget cuts bite and warned the problem is wider than just being an issue at Doncaster.

Glyn Travis, a spokesman for the POA, said: “The report doesn’t come as any surprise to the POA. Whether you are publicly or privately operated, staffing levels and budgets cuts has been the most serious underlying problem in the increasing violence within our prisons. We call on the Government to increase funding across both the public and private sector and bring prisons to a state of stability.”

He said the reported issues with violence and staffing levels in Doncaster are “the same everywhere” across the country.

“The reduction in staff and the rise in violence has led to staff feeling very, very unsafe in all prisons, it is not just Doncaster.”

Doncaster Prison, which is operated by Serco, opened in 1994 and can hold more than 1,100 prisoners. The Category B prison holds remand and sentenced young offenders and adult male prisoners, with one wing designated as a sex offender unit.

In 2015, inmate Keiron Simpson caused the death of fellow prisoner Robert Bryan after killing him with a single punch to the head. Simpson was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

An inspection of the prison is due to take place this summer.

Ministers have launched a major reform programme in a bid to overhaul the prison system after a spate of serious disturbances and worsening safety standards.

In the year to September, assaults in jails in England and Wales reached a record high of 25,049 - equivalent to more than 60 every day, the most recent official statistics show.

In a highly critical assessment, the committee warned that violence is “spiralling out of control” and described overcrowding as “chronic”.

Its report said: “Over the last 25 years, the prison population has nearly doubled, and almost all adult prisons now operate at or near full operational capacity and well above their certified normal capacity.”

Unless “determined action” is taken to significantly reduce the current prison population, the “regime improvements” envisaged by the authorities’ reform agenda will remain unattainable, the paper warned.

Regimes in all prison establishments visited were said to be “inadequate”, with a considerable number of prisoners spending up to 22 hours per day locked up in their cells.

At one youth offenders institution, some juveniles could spend up to 23 and a half hours a day locked up alone in their cells, according to the committee, which argued that holding youngsters in such conditions amounts to “inhuman and degrading treatment”.

John Wadham, chairman of the UK National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), a collection of bodies which have powers to inspect or monitor places of detention, said: “The CPT report gives the NPM much to reflect on. A great deal of what they say echoes our own concerns.

“Our research shows that more than 124,000 people are detained in the UK on any given day. This report is an important reminder that there is much to be done to improve the conditions in which people are held and how they are treated.

“I am particularly concerned by their finding that a number of children held in one young offender institution spent 23.5 hours a day locked in their cells. I agree with the CPT that such conditions amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.”