Recruitment drive to increase employee numbers 'is underway'
Justice secretary Chris Grayling has admitted that “there is a shortage of staff” at some UK prisons potentially putting employees and prisoners at risk.
Grayling’s comments came as an independent report criticised the Isis Young Offenders Institution in South East London for its high levels of violence, with one detainee describing it as being like a “gladiator school”.
Critics have warned that the broader prison system is in “crisis” as governors face problems with violence, suicides and staff shortages.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme about these issues, the minister said: "We've got challenges of an increased population that was not expected in the last 12 months.
"We're meeting those challenges, we're recruiting those staff but I'm absolutely clear - there is not a crisis in our prisons. There are pressures which we're facing but there's not a crisis."
Government data for January to March 2014 showed a one per cent rise in the prison population from 70,913 to 71,481.
The minister said he planned to continue to deliver a safe and appropriate prison regime “in a world where budgets are much lower than they were". He also highlighted his previous decision in 2012 to avoid privatising a significant number of prisons preferring instead to retain the bulk of these institutions in the public sector as proposed by prison governors.
However, the Prison Governors Association said staffing levels were too low to make this proposal work.
Earlier this week, a prison officer from Lewes Prison told the BBC she feared that staff shortages risked the lives of her colleagues unless action was taken. Kim Lennon said there were not enough staff available to meet the needs of prisoners creating a situation resembling “a war zone”.
In response the Prison Service denied that staffing levels at Lewes were unsafe.