Investment needed in prisons

Urgent investment in the prison service is needed to overcome rising suicide rates the POA prison officers’ union has warned.

The union issued a statement in response to a recent BBC Newsnight investigation on the dramatic increase in prison suicide rates — in the last 10 years the rate has gone up by 220%.

The POA highlighted the struggle of prison officers after huge cuts to the Ministry of Justice budget left them with no time to build relationships with prisoners.

Instead, the union said, prison officers spend their shifts simply trying to deliver a regime set against unrealistic and undeliverable performance targets, with draconian cuts resulting in the loss of 86,000 years of prison officer experience.

“Many of our local prisons and training prisons suffered staffing cuts that were simply not safe for staff, and not safe for prisoners,” the statement continued.

Newsnight described a world where mental health problems are treated too often with custodial sentences and where officers are never given training.

POA national chair Mark Fairhurst said: “Prison populations have grown massively, the number of people taking their lives increased, yet the number of front-line prison officers has fallen.”

He added: “ ... we have campaigned tirelessly to remove razor blades from our prisons ... yet our employer has struggled to act with any sense of urgency.”