The "Welsh" super prison

It seems that the warnings raised by this BBC investigation into the dangers to prison officers (POs) have not been heeded.  POs gathered outside the gates of Berwyn yesterday in order to protest. BBC News reported that there were:

claims of a "series of assaults" on staff at the UK's biggest prison. Alleged incidents have included staff being pushed down stairs and spat on. The Prison Officers' Association (POA) also claimed the inmates have not faced any punishment, and a confidence vote went against senior managers at the category C prison last week.

Up to 50 prison staff gathered at the gate of Berwyn to be addressed by POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst. "Over the course of the last four weeks there's been quite a few assaults on staff and the staff have highlighted to me their concerns about the lack of consequences for those actions," he said. "We want safe working conditions and I'm pleased to say the committee are engaging with the management, we're trying to resolve those issues. "Last weekend we had a member of staff butted and lost some teeth, we've had 'pottings' where prisoners throw excrement and urine over staff and I've heard that over the weekend a member of staff was kicked down the stairs." Mr Fairhurst said attacks on staff were not unusual in prisons but in Berwyn they were trying to promote a rehabilitation culture which prisoners needed to buy into. He added: If they are going around assaulting staff, they need to be transferred out of Berwyn immediately and put into the mainstream because they're not engaging with the ethos we're trying to create at Berwyn. "Unfortunately that's not happening and it's having a massive effect on staff morale and staff safety." 

 A Prison Service spokesman said: "Violence against our hard-working staff will never be tolerated and when incidents occur we push for the strongest possible punishment. "In the last week alone two prisoners were sentenced to additional time behind bars for breaking prison rules."

A solution in the medium term must be an increase in the officer/prisoner ratio, which ought to be higher than the average in a facility dedicated to rehabilitation. Longer term, I believe that a Welsh government could handle criminal justice better than the English, who seem intent on following the USA's lead rather than more enlightened European examples.

A major reason for Westminster not losing hold of prison policy in Wales is clearly that the principality is increasingly a dumping-ground for convicts from England. In turn, this could be a factor in the tensions between POs and prisoners.

It does not bode well for the proposed super-prison in Neath Port Talbot.