Riot officers have been sent into a prison to deal with a disturbance, the government has confirmed, only two weeks after as many as 200 prisoners were involved in a riot at another facility.
Sunday’s news comes after prison officers were ordered by a judge to abandon a planned strike over an increase in violence in a system they said was in meltdown.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed that its Tornado team, prison officers trained to quell riots, had been ordered into HMP Moorland, near Doncaster – a category C prison, and dealt with a situation involving about 10 prisoners in the early hours of Monday.
A Prison Service spokeswoman later said: “Specially trained staff have successfully resolved an isolated incident involving a small number of prisoners on one wing at HMP Moorland.
“We are absolutely clear that prisoners who behave in this way will be punished and could spend significantly longer behind bars.”
Earlier, she said some prisoners had been removed from the wing but was unable to say exactly how many, nor was she able to give any further detail on the nature of the disturbance.
Two weeks ago, the Prison Service was forced to launch an investigation after a riot at Bedford prison took officers six hours to bring under control. An inspection of the facility in September found that conditions had fallen to “unacceptable levels”, with prisoners easily able to get hold of illegal drugs.
Last week, the Prison Officers’ Association and the justice secretary, Liz Truss, agreed to reopen talks after the high court’s order that the union’s proposed 24-hour strike involving up to 10,000 staff be called off.
The POA had said that a “continued surge in violence and unprecedented levels of suicide and acts of self-harm ... demonstrate that the service is in meltdown”.
- This article was amended on 21 November 2016 to remove references to riot police. The Tornado team is made up of prison officers, not police.
