Dartmoor staff fear officers may be killed

VIDEO: Violence increasing at prison

A recently released Dartmoor prisoner says violent incidents at the Napoleonic jail have risen threefold in the past year. in the attached video report, he says prisoners are constantly looking over their shoulders, anticipating being attacked. Staff shortages also mean prisoners are locked in their cells much of the day, without access to education or exercise. In the last few weeks, one officer was knocked unconscious breaking up a fight. Assaults of staff have doubled in 2020, with one anonymous officer at the prison telling BBC Spotlight they believe a member of staff could be killed unless interventions are made.

Their fears comes new figures show Inmates at Dartmoor and Exeter Prison are getting 20 per cent more days added to their sentence on average at internal disciplinary hearings. Such internal punishments have added nearer 30 per cent to time people are banged up at Channings Wood prison near Newton Abbot.

Campaigning group the Howard League for Penal Reform says the disciplinary system behind bars creates a pervasive sense of injustice, fuelling conflict and overcrowding in jails.

Nationally the figures show that adjudications have been used increasingly and unnecessarily as an everyday behaviour management tool – leading to punitive and arbitrary outcomes. The Howard League has seen troubling cases including teenagers who punished for attempting to harm themselves and a young adult with learning difficulties who was ordered to spend longer in prison at a hearing where he did not have legal representation. 

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “If we must have prisons, they should meet the very highest standards of justice, with disciplinary processes that are fair, discerning and proportionate. Rather than solving problems, however, the current system creates new ones. Procedurally unjust and unduly punitive, it succeeds only in driving a pervasive sense of injustice that undermines trust and engagement and leads to more conflict.

“It is time to adopt a different approach. If we look beyond punishment and install procedurally fair processes built on communication, consent and respect, we can make prisons safer and guide more people away from crime.”