Prisoners of their own demands

By an 85 percent vote the Prison Officers Association has rejected the government’s offer of a 2.2 percent pay rise with the Union’s leadership calling it “disgraceful”. But really Prison Officers in the public sector should not be complaining: they are paid 39 percent more than their counterparts in the private sector. When the value of the occupational pension is included, this gap rises to 61 percent.

All this matters because labour costs are by far the largest part of the prison service budget, 80 percent in 2006/7 with this set to rise to 90% by 2010-11. Also, prison officer pay can’t be that disgraceful if the resignation rate is only 2.2 percent.