My first job today when I arrived at my constituency office was to contact the Justice Department to express my concerns about Fridays attack on a prison officer at Swaleside. The Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, insisted on talking to me personally. I explained my concerns about the way in which the two prisoners were allegedly intoxicated and suggested this was because staff shortages was making it difficult to undertake regular cell checks. I explained that I was particularly concerned about the way that attacks on prison officers have been dealt with in the past. I told Mr Grayling that prison officers feel that they are not protected in the same way as police officers. If a police officer is attacked then the attacker is prosecuted in a civil court, whereas too often attacks on prison officers are dealt with under the prison service disciplinary system, which usually ends in withdrawal of privileges, which is not much of a deterrent. This is because the CPS rarely prosecutes prisoners because they claim it is not in the public interest because the perpetrators are already in prison. I was heartened to hear from Mr Grayling that he agrees with me and is pressing the CPS to take attacks on prison officer more seriously. He has also said that rather than getting a junior prisons minister to visit the Island, he will come himself. That too is heartening and I look forward to joining him at one of other of Sheppeys prisons. I very much hope that at last someone is taking seriously the problem being faced by our hard working prison officers and something will get done. I backed up my telephone conversation with Mr Grayling by putting my concerns in writing. Some people criticise me for sending so many letters, but actually, putting something in writing formalises matters of concern and often ensures action!
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 19:27:11 +0000
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