HMP Full Sutton: Violence against prisoners and officers rising

Violence against prisoners and officers has risen at HMP Full Sutton, along with staff shortages, a report found.

Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults went from 28 in 2021 to 35 in 2022 at the high-security East Yorkshire jail.

Incidents against staff also rose from 25 in 2021 to 38 in 2022, seven of which were classified as serious, according to the prison's Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).

The Ministry of Justice said it was recruiting additional prison officers.

HMP Full Sutton inmates were locked in their cells "for significant periods of time" due to low staffing levels, the report found.

But overall the prison remained safe and secure, according to its IMB.

Independent Monitoring Boards are made up of unpaid volunteers who report on whether those held in prisons and immigration facilities are being treated fairly and humanely.

In its annual report, the IMB for HMP Full Sutton said that in 2022 individual wings began to have lockdowns imposed at short notice and prisoners were locked in their cells for either the morning, afternoon, or evening. It said that this was to allow the prison to "run a full regime on other wings".

These lockdowns led to inmates missing out on workshops and education.

The report said that tight staffing levels brought about by Covid had continued into 2022. As a result, drug-testing has remained low since the pandemic with "260.5 testing days being lost" to staff shortages.

It also noted that the facility suffers from a shortage of mental health and general nurses, as well as psychologists.

However, "the atmosphere within the prison remained calm" and there were some improvements in the prison's education service, the report said.

Richard Terry, chair of Full Sutton IMB, said that although 2022 was another tough year for prisoners and staff, the board's overall assessment was that prisoners were treated fairly.

"Effective communication with prisoners helped to mitigate the effect of the restrictions," he said.

In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said: "This report recognises the hard work of staff at HMP Full Sutton to improve education for prisoners which is vital in cutting reoffending and protecting the public.

"The prison is also streamlining the hiring process for new staff to boost recruitment and the average time for hiring and training new prison officers has fallen month-on-month."

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].