Why Britain’s prison guards are losing control

Prisons are terrifying places when guards lose control. The authorities retreat and angry prisoners are left in charge – until the cavalry arrives. That comes in the form of the National Tactical Response Group (NTRG), which resolves hostage situations, work ‘at height’ when prisoners have scaled buildings or refuse to leave safety netting on the wings or are standing on a table. If things aren’t resolved amicably, the NTRG can instruct Tornado riot squads to storm prison wings. Worryingly, Britain’s prison guards are becoming more reliant on these methods to regain charge of out-of-control jails.

Last year, these squads were deployed nearly 800 times – a 40 per cent increase since 2022. The figures appear to show the trouble with relying on inexperienced guards to man our jails. The Ministry of Justice perhaps inadvertently makes this point itself: it says that a large number of callouts are ‘for non-violent or confrontational issues…and this data includes instances where a request for assistance was later deemed unnecessary.’