Gender equality sees as many female prison officers assaulted as men, says head of service

Gender equality has led to more female prison officers being beaten up by male inmates, the head of the prison service revealed yesterday.

Michael Spurr said women jail staff were now as likely to be attacked as their male colleague because of the disappearance of long-standing and traditional norms in prisons.

During his 35-career in the prison service, he said, there had been an understanding that male inmates would not hit female officers.

However, he told MPs on the Commons justice committee: "Over the last 10 years, that has changed - there's pure equality.

"If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time you get hit, for things that are quite trivial today compared to previously, which would have been dealt with potentially by an expletive rather than a punch. Those are norms that are changing."

The change was highlighted in September when officers walked over conditions that they claimed were unsafe “every day.”

A female prison officer protesting at Bedford prison told how she had a bucket of urine thrown over her from a landing above her.

"They're not bothered if you're female or male; they have no respect regardless if you're female," said.

"We have some issues of being hit. I've been spat at several times. The other week I was spat at twice within five minutes in the face." On that occasion she said she had to be tested for hepatitis B.

The prison officers’ association say two officers are admitted to Accident and Emergency after being attacked by inmates.

Latest prison safety figures for England and Wales show there were a record 32,559 assault incidents in total in the 12 months to June, up 20% from the previous year. Assaults against staff increased by over a quarter (27%) to 9,485 incidents.

 The prison service said it was giving prison officers body worn cameras, police style restraints and incapacitant spray to improve safety. “Violence against our hardworking officers is intolerable, which is why we recently doubled the maximum sentence for this crime to 12 months,” it said.

Prisons Minister Rory Stewartadmitted to MPs that the continued “very worrying” levels of violence were putting his job at risk after he pledged this summer to quit if there was no improvement in safety at 10 jails with “acute” problems.

"I have promised to resign unless we turn that graph round on violence in those 10 key prisons. At the moment, that graph is going in the wrong direction for me,” said Mr Stewart.

Mr Spurr also revealed how technology and social media had changed the way people behaved in prison: "Social interaction isn't as it was. People are so used to engaging in media.

"When you allow people out of cell, unstructured time with adults engaging with one another was the norm. Younger prisoners find that much more difficult."

Issues relating to mental health and drug use in the community have a bearing on what goes on behind bars, added Mr Spurr, who will leave his role as chief executive of HM Prisons & Probation Service next year.