Prison violence up a third in five years

Monday, 18 May 2009 12:01 AM

By Ian Dunt

New figures show prison violence has gone up by a third in the last five years, in what many analysts are treating as an inevitable consequence of overcrowding.

Self-harm, assault and fires are all on the rise, with 180,000 acts committed over 5 years - an increase of 31 per cent.

The figures, obtained by the Howard League for Penal Reform, show young offender and female prisons are particularly badly hit, with prisoner-on-prisoner assaults up 58 per cent in the former and self-harm climbing by 42 per cent in the latter.

Director of the Howard League, Frances Crook, said: "This shocking rise in violence is far above what might be expected as we lock up ever increasing numbers of men, women and children whose mental health problems and addictions will never be properly treated within our flooded and failing jails.

"As these are recorded statistics, it is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg with real levels of assaults, rapes and arson much higher than the Prison Service is admitting."

Between 2004 and 2008:

• Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults rose by 36 per cent, with a total of 56,517 incidents.
• Prisoner-on-officer assaults increased by six per cent overall, and by 12 per cent in female prisons. In total, prison officers were attacked 13,993 times by inmates.
• Self-harm incidents went up by 25 per cent, and by 42 per cent in female prisons. There were 104,414 recorded incidents of self-injury, 54 per cent of which were committed by women and girls. This is despite the fact that they comprise just five per cent of the prison population.

Women's prisons have seen the most dramatic increases in acts of violence. Bronzefield, a privately run women's prison, saw a 300 per cent rise in the number of fires started between 2004 and 2008, and acts of arson in Holloway went up by 211 per cent.

"Overcrowded, squalid prison conditions lead to rioting, violence and chaos, which is dangerous for prisoners, staff and local communities," Ms Crook said.

"Prisons are awash with drugs, violence and arson and the government is planning to inflict all this on more local communities by building another five 1,500 place prisons."

The government recently dropped its much criticised plan to build several Titan prisons - described by opponents as penal factories - but insists it will spread higher prison populations over smaller institutions.

Tags:
• policing and crime
,
• prisons
,
• public services