Prison officers due to take control of jail from management after riot

Officers lost control of the c-wing at HMP Lewes on Saturday amid a crisis of understaffing and overcrowding.

The Prison Officers Association has said it plans to "take control" of Lewes prison on Wednesday as a result of increasing violence and concerns about safety.

Just four officers had been left in charge of more than 164 inmates when the six hour rampage broke out.

Mike Rolf chairman of the Prison Officers Association said: "The whole estate is so volatile and violent.

"That is why on Wednesday we are calling for our members to hold emergency meetings and take over from management."

He said poor management decisions had led to Saturday's riot - as the four officers on duty were ordered to release prisoners into shared areas who had been held in lock-down.

Staff are understood to have been instructed to allow a group of between 30 and 40 prisoners out of their cells following a day of being kept in their cells.

The trouble started when officers were unable to get prisoners back in their cells and had to retreat from the wing until national guards were called in to restore calm to the jail after a six hour rampage.

It is thought six ring-leaders were at the centre of the riot - which resulted in extensive damage to toilet blocks, offices and cells.

Other prisoners who were still locked up in their cells also caused extensive damage to their cells.

Sources said that prisoners would normally only be allowed out of their cells if at least six staff were on duty.

Andrew Nielson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal reform, said: "Four officers for 160-odd prisoners is absolutely not enough.

"It is not a high enough ratio and it explains why the wing was lost.

"This latest incident backs up what the statistics have been warning - which is that prisons are increasingly violent and out of control."

Official figures on prison violence released last week showed there had been a 35 per cent increase in violent assaults in prisons in the 12 months up to June this year.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: "Specially trained prison staff have resolved an incident involving a small number of prisoners on one wing at HMP Lewes.

"We are absolutely clear that prisoners who behave in this way will be punished and could spend significantly longer behind bars."

Bus-loads of prisoners were yesterday being shipped out of the jail to other prisons around the country.

THE PERFECT STORM OF PROBLEMS THAT LED TO VIOLENCE

THE 160-odd prisoners on Lewes Prison’s C-wing had been locked in their cells for hours on end when frustrations reached boiling point.

The mixture of remand and convicted inmates serving sentences for a range of crimes were frustrated at best on Saturday morning.

Experts believe keeping prisoners holed up in their cells for hours can make them far more volatile.

Denied the chance to exercise or phone their families they become agitated.

Just after 9am on Saturday management at the jail ordered the four officers guarding C-wing to release small groups of prisoners into the communal areas.

Between 30 and 40 inmatesofficers were allowed into the communal areas, but when officers tried to return them to their cells an hour later some became aggressive.

Some of the prisoners led by a group of around six ringleaders threatened staff with violence and refused to return to their cells.

Staff, vastly outnumbered, retreated to safety in another part of the jail.

For six hours inmates caused significant damage to toilet blocks, offices and cells.

Those still locked in their cells joined in the violence.

Mike Rolf, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), said: “There was a controlled unlocking on the wing of a reduced number of prisoners.

“When they were trying to put them back some prisoners refused to go back in their cells and started reacting violently, forcing the staff to retreat.

“The staff had to retreat, they had no other choice and as soon as they did, they went on the rampage.

“People have been warning about exactly this for a long time.

“If you have to keep prisoners locked up then you are forcing things to happen and what it leads to is what happened on Saturday: prisoners get frustrated, which is dangerous when there are not enough staff in place to control it.”

Critics said the events of the weekend were the result of a perfect storm of all the concerns that have been growing for years.

Fears of over crowding, understaffing and growing violence had led to fears of a “bloodbath”.

The Howard League for Penal Reform had issued a stark warning about the effects of growing violence and diminishing staff numbers just last week.

Campaign director Andrew Nielson said: “Having less staff to control more inmates has created a crisis across the system.

“This incident at Lewes is the hallmark of this problem. Staff lost control of part of the prison and that is particularly concerning.

“We don’t see incidents like this more often because with so few staff prisoners are often locked in their cells for long periods of time. But if you have people banged up 23 hours a day that in itself breeds frustration.”

Lewes is designed to hold 617 prisoners but is currently holding 642. Staff numbers at the jail have dropped from 150 in 2013 to 127 this June.

Government figures show violence in prisons increased 35 per cent in the 12 months leading up to June as prison populations have been growing and staff numbers shrinking.

Lewes is a prison particularly vulnerable to violent outbursts. The number of assaults at Lewes rose from 106 in 2014 to 154 in 2015, an increase of 45 per cent.

Mr Nielson warned that Lewes is more symptomatic of the problems facing prisons across the country because its high numbers of remand prisoners and those on shorter sentences creates a “volatile population”.

The POA has also warned of an added problem at Lewes of a “subculture of bullying by management”.

Lewes prison officer Kim Lennon was sacked after telling The Argus about her fears over safety at the jail.

The whistleblower said her concerns were vindicated by inspectors but her former colleagues are clearly scared to speak out.

Mr Rolf said that there was a vicious circle of decreasing staff numbers contributing to more stressful and violent working conditions for officers, leading to more dangerous situations like the one on Saturday.

Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, said earlier this year that the conditions he had observed in our jails showed the country’s prisons had become “unacceptably violent and dangerous places.”

Justice Secretary Liz Truss is expected to address Parliament in early November about growing concerns over “unacceptable” levels of violence in Britain’s prisons.