Cookham Wood: Prison officers demand PAVA spray use in youth jail

Staff working at a young offenders institute in Kent are calling on the government to allow them to use PAVA spray to better protect them.

An urgent notice for action was called for at Cookham Wood in Rochester in April after a report found nearly a quarter of children felt unsafe.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) said incapacitant spray would help defuse violent incidents.

But the government said progress was being made to reduce violence levels.

Steve Gillan, general secretary of the POA, said he feared a life could be lost without better protection for his members.

"Some of our members have received broken limbs, broken jaws, severe head injuries. People don't go to work to be assaulted," he added.

In a letter to the government in April, seen by BBC South East, POA national chair Mark Fairhurst said an attack could have been quelled if staff at Cookham Wood had the option to use PAVA.

An inspection report in July found that inmates at Cookham Wood armed themselves with hundreds of home-made weapons at the jail where "violence was rife".

The government approved a series of urgent measures in a crackdown on weapons, including deploying search teams using dogs.

In 2018 the government announced that PAVA spray would be rolled out to all male category A to D prisons but a decision on its further use was still being considered.

Judith Feline, a former governor at Maidstone prison and ex-prison officer at Cookham Wood, was undecided on whether PAVA spray was the solution to cutting violence.

She told BBC South East: "I don't know whether PAVA is the solution. I have seen it used in the adult estate and it has a pretty nasty affect on you, because your eyes run and it's very sore, but it stops you doing whatever you are doing.

"There are all sorts of issues using that on children. They might be violent young men but they are kids, it's a very difficult decision to make," she added.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "We continue to provide additional support to HMYOI Cookham Wood and the new governor, appointed earlier this year, is building on progress already made to reduce violence and the number of children being kept apart."

"The safety and welfare of those children in our care and our staff is paramount and we're committed to improving safety across all our sites which is why we are currently considering all the evidence before making a decision on the further roll-out of PAVA."

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