Forest Bank prison bosses investigate allegations guard has had 'inappropriate relationship' with inmate

Managers at Salford's Forest Bank prison are 'conducting all relevant enquiries' following allegations a prison officer has been involved in an inappropriate relationship with an inmate.

A spokesperson confirmed an investigation was underway, but declined to say whether the prison officer has been suspended. A prison source told the Manchester Evening News a female prison officer has been suspended for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner.

The source said her phone number was found in his cell, as was a mobile phone it appears the prisoner was using. When the M.E.N. put the allegations to Sodexo, the private facilities management giant running the jail on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, a spokesperson for HMP Forest Bank said: "We are conducting all relevant enquiries, therefore it would be inappropriate to comment or name any individual in the meantime." The spokesperson declined to comment further.

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Last month bosses at the under-fire prison in Salford denied allegations staff are discouraged from reporting attacks 'because it looks bad'. They issued a robust defence of reporting of incidents inside the troubled, privately-operated jail after two sources at the prison made a series of claims to the M.E.N.

The sources said staff were told to not to report less serious assaults and to report more serious assaults as minor incidents. Prison bosses insist reporting of incidents is independently scrutinised and say all violent attacks are 'investigated carefully'.

The allegations were made as government ministers mull over whether to remove the facilities management giant currently running the jail on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, Sodexo, when the current £1bn contract comes to an end on January 19. A decision is expected in the summer.

The jail has been beset by problems. In April last year, an M.E.N. investigation uncovered allegations of widespread drug use and inmates who 'run the wings', prompting an MP and Salford's mayor to write to the government to demand an 'urgent' review.

Our revelations included a call from Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey for the Ministry of Justice to cancel the billion pound contract it has with Sodexo to run the jail.

Our investigation, based on allegations from a whistle-blower, an ex-prisoner and his father, and the family of a grandfather who died in his cell, exposed what Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey branded a 'culture of lawlessness' at the jail.

The M.E.N. revealed that:

• Drugs are rife, smuggled in via 'legal letters' and inmates are 'off their t**s a lot of the time'

• Inmates brew their own hooch

• Violence is commonplace and inmates 'run the wings'

• Staff feel 'unsafe' and a lone guard can be 'left to guard 100-plus inmates'

• Staff have to buy 'their own uniform because of cost-cutting'

• A desperate father paid off a drug dealer on his addict son's wing because 'staff didn't protect him'

Sodexo's contract to run the prison ends on January 19, 2025. Back in 1998, it was awarded a deal worth £1,006,771,964 to design, build and run the prison built on the site of the former Agecroft power station under a private finance initiative to house a maximum 1,064 inmates. The deal was to last 25 years, before being extended.

Sodexo, founded and based in France, runs six prisons in England and Scotland, and in 2022 recorded revenues of 21.1bn euros, including 'underlying operating profit' of more than a billion euros, up 83 per cent.