Police are investigating an incident at a prison where an inmate was “stabbed”.
It happened at Lewes Prison on Tuesday afternoon.
It was described as a “laceration” and the inmate was discharged from hospital on the same day.
It comes after a prison report revealed that conditions at HMP Lewes had become even worse.
Inside Lewes Prison
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: “Police are investigating an incident which took place yesterday at HMP Lewes. We are unable to comment further.”
Sussex Police did not attend the incident but said they were informed.
A force spokesman said: “Sussex Police were informed at 4.40pm on May 2 about a prisoner being taken to hospital following an incident at HMP Lewes.”
A prison inspection in January this year revealed that “squalid conditions” had got even worse since May last year.
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Inmates at Lewes Prison are left in cells for up to 23 hours while levels of violence continue to be high, self-harm has risen and some areas of the prison are “unacceptably dirty”.
The report stated: “Overall recorded rates of violence since we last visited Lewes were similar to those found at the inspection and were comparable to other reception prisons.
“Levels of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults had been increasing over the previous eight months but the rate of assaults against staff was now lower than at the inspection.”
Conditions at HMP Lewes have deteriorated since last year
The report stated that leaders in the prison had started to gain a better understanding of the causes of violence and attributed the increasing rate of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults to frustrations with the regime and a lack of purposeful activity.
Living accommodation at the 624-prisoner jail remained poor with graffiti on walls and many toilets in an “unacceptable state” during the inspection.
The prison had made efforts to improve cleanliness but living accommodation remained poor and many toilets were in an unacceptable state. Given how long prisoners were spending locked in their cells, this was particularly concerning.
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