Staffing cuts are to blame for disturbances in two separate prisons last weekend, the prison officers’ union has said. It warned of hidden costs to the cuts, saying that they were leading to some prisoners going unsupervised.
Prison riot squads had to storm a cell at the high-security Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire last weekend when a prisoner took a hostage. Negotiators failed to persuade the hostage-taker, who had flooded the cell and started fires, to end the siege, which lasted nine hours.
On the same day, riot squads ended a standoff involving 13 prisoners who erected barricades blocking two entrances to one of the wings at Garth prison, in Lancashire.
“Once again, we are seeing serious incidents which we believe are a result of staff cuts. These have resulted in a lack of purposeful activity and prisoners being unsupervised,” said Glyn Travis, spokesman for the Prison Officers Association. “Such incidents were costly and involve detailed investigations by the prison service and the police. These are the hidden costs of the cuts to the taxpayers.”
Whitemoor houses 450 prisoners, including some of the most dangerous in the system. Last Saturday at 4.15pm a prison officer on the jail’s D wing was alerted to an incident in cell 118, where a prisoner was holding another inmate against his will.
Prison service national negotiating teams were called in and efforts were made to talk the prisoner into releasing his hostage. The inmate refused and flooded the cell with water and lit a series of small fires.
At 1.15am, after negotiations failed, the riot squads stormed the cell using flash grenades and released the victim. Neither of the prisoners, both in their 40s, was injured. The POA said that one prison officer suffered a minor injury to his leg.
At 6.15 pm on the same day, 13 prisoners erected two barricades in Garth prison, blocking the entrance to B wing. Staff withdrew and national negotiating teams were called in. Several hours of negotiations failed to resolve the situation and, at 2.45am, two “tornado teams” of riot officers attacked the barricades.
They met some resistance but no injuries to staff or prisoners were reported. The 13 prisoners were transferred to other jails. Garth is a category B prison holding around 850 inmates. Stuart Horner, who protested on the roof of Manchester prison this week, was transferred there from Garth when staff suspected he was planning an escape.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said an incident involving two prisoners at HMP Whitemoor was successfully resolved by staff and there were no injuries. “The police are investigating,” he said.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Staff at HMP Garth successfully resolved an incident involving a group of prisoners who had refused to return to their cells on Saturday 12 September. No prison officers were injured and one prisoner suffered a minor facial wound, which was treated by on-site medical staff.
“The incident was confined to one part of the prison and the rest of the establishment was not affected. The police were called and are investigating.”
