Prison is supposedly a place for wrongdoers to repent and reform – but it seems that even the staff inside are no angels themselves. After a female Wandsworth prison guard was suspended in July for a viral video of her, er, engaging with an inmate, Mr S did some digging into how widespread this phenomenon this really is. And Steerpike can reveal that dozens of prison officers have faced disciplinary action for ‘inappropriate relations’ with inmates or ex-offenders – with 65 probed since 2018 alone. Talk about the screws, eh?
This figure was provided by the Ministry of Justice in respond to a Freedom of Information request by The Spectator and includes prison officers, supervising officers, and custodial managers on salary bands 3-5. Five years ago, 12 staffers faced sanctions – but in the last few years the figure has risen, with 14 officers penalised in 2021-22 while 16 were disciplined 2022-23. It’s a rather poor indictment of the prison guard hiring process – perhaps they were envisioning different types of whips and chains…
Swooping in to defend those prison guards that did manage to restrain themselves, the Ministry of Justice is adamant that ‘the overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest’, noting: ‘It would be wrong to question their expertise and professionalism as a direct result of the small number who aren’t.’
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