Violence rockets at Liverpool Prison

Aug 1 2007 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

VIOLENCE is spiralling out of control in Liverpool Prison as the overcrowding crisis bites, it was claimed yesterday.

The number of violent incidents between prisoners has increased by a staggering 2,600% in a decade, according to official Government statistics.

There were 162 attacks on fellow inmates last year at the Walton prison, compared with just six in 1996.

The rising tide of violence is nearly as dramatic at other prisons across the region, with an average increase of 1,726% over a decade.

The privately-run Altcourse Prison, in Fazakerley, did not record a single violent incident between prisoners in 1996, but there were 195 last year, even more than at Liverpool.

And at Thorn Cross young offender institution, in Warrington, there was a 2,283% rise in prisoner-on-prisoner attacks, up from just six to 143.

There were also big increases in violent incidents at Risley remand centre, also in Warrington (614%) and at Styal women’s prison, in Wilmslow, Cheshire (333%).

The Liberal Democrats, who obtained the figures, immediately linked the growing violence to the number of prisoners, which peaked at an all-time

high of 81,040 last month.

The overcrowding crisis has forced many more prisoners to share cells and is blamed for an increase in suicides. There were 50 in the first six months of this year.

But the Ministry of Justice insisted the increase was partly explained by changes in the way violent incidents were recorded over the 10-year period.

The system for reporting assaults was more efficient and minor incidents were no longer ignored, a spokesman said.

However, David Heath, the Lib-Dem justice spokesman, said: “These shocking figures reveal how a decade of Labour mismanagement has left our prisons in crisis and the public at risk.

“So many people have been crammed into prison that violence has spiralled out of control.

“The systematic violence in our prisons makes rehabilitation even harder and makes it less likely that prisoners will turn away from crime.”

Mr Heath announced a five-pronged programme to cut the prison population, including more community sentences.

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, agreed that rocketing prison violence was linked to overcrowding.

She said: “What these figures really demonstrate is the failure of prison to deal with offending behaviour. It is particularly shocking that nine out of 10 of the most violent prisons house young offenders.

“If prisons cannot even keep order within their own bounds, failing completely to tackle the underlying causes of offending, then the public must ask: is prison working for us? The answer, simply, is no.”

Such punishments were twice as long as the alternative of locking someone up and were “more effective than sitting watching TV in a cell”, he said

Across England and Wales, there were 11,476 violent incidents between prisoners last year, a 541% rise on the 1,791 a decade earlier.