Prison officers get pepper spray to fight violence in UK jails

Riot police outside Birmingham Prison during a disturbance in 2016. Prison officers are to be given pepper spray to deal with such incidents
Joe Giddens/PA
James Morris9 October 2018

Prison officers are to be given synthetic pepper spray to combat violence in jails.

Acting national chair Mark Fairhurst told the Standard: “We welcome it, it’s a sensible decision. We have been campaigning for this for years. It’s a positive step for improving the safety of prison officers and prisoners as well.

“Pepper spray has been trialled in four prisons and worked well. All we have at the moment is extendable batons. But pepper spray can be used at a distance and we don’t have to get in the middle of a melee.

Prison officers are to be given pepper spray to combat violence in UK jails. These Prison Officers' Association members are pictured striking outside Bedford Prison last month
Stefan Rousseau/PA

“It’s non-lethal, just an incapacitant, with no lasting effects. It’s better than hitting someone with a piece of metal.”

But he added the government needs to do far more to improve prison conditions.

“We need to see major investment in prisons, for living and working conditions. We need workshops so prisoners can acquire vocational skills. And we need more staff – we have lost 7,000 since 2010.”

Prisons minister Rory Stewart was warned more investment is needed in the nation's jails (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
PA

The pepper spray canisters will be handed out at all prisons with male inmates.

The announcement comes ahead of the Prison Governors’ Association’s annual conference on Tuesday.

President Andrea Albutt is expected to accuse the government of failing to react to the prison safety crisis, with drugs and self-harm also plaguing the nation’s jails.

She is expected to say: "We have crumbling prisons and an inability to give a safe, decent and secure regime to large numbers of men and women in our care due to lack of staff, not fit for purpose contracts and a much more violent, disrespectful, gang and drug affiliated population."

The Ministry of Justice said it acknowledged the challenges prison officers faced, and that it had taken meaningful action to address them.

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