HMP Five Wells officers 'left alone with 64 prisoners'

A former prison officer at a so-called "super prison" has told the BBC she was often left alone on a landing with 64 prisoners.

Kate, which is not her real name, told the BBC prisoners at HMP Five Wells near Wellingborough in Northamptonshire were left to resolve incidents while the staff could only watch.

She left after six months.

The prison is run by G4S which said: "The safety of staff and prisoners is our number one priority."

HMP Five Wells opened in 2022 and was intended to support prisoners on the road to rehabilitation. There are no bars in the windows and inmates are known as "residents".

There are 24 different workshops at the 1,680-capacity jail to help inmates learn new skills with the aim of improving their job prospects on release.

However, Kate suggested there were issues with training, staff numbers and management.

Although she had a 12-week training course at the prison, she said that it did not really prepare her for the job.

"I basically got paid for 12 weeks of sitting on a wing that wasn't in use yet having a muck-about with my [trainee] mates," she said.

"As soon as I got on to the houseblock and then the landings, I didn't have a scooby what I was doing."

She said that there was very little support from the management who would only point out mistakes.

An Independent Monitoring Board [IMB] report published last month found there were too many "inexperienced operational staff" at the jail and a "reluctance by wing staff to challenge prisoners (e.g. when prisoners walk into the staff office, or when they are vaping in unauthorised areas)".

Kate said: "I'd say the prisoners are running it [the prison]. A lot stuff that happens there, the prisoners are the ones that deal with the situations and try to calm everybody down.

"[The staff] were there, watching it."

Kate said staff often felt unsafe: "If you have to go to get new rules signed or get the trolley for lunch or dinner, you're leaving one person on a landing, on their own with 64 prisoners.

"I used to be left on multiple landings on my own; I'm not a timid person, but it did used to freak me out and I always used to stand near the gate, just in case."

The IMB also said that drugs were available in most houseblocks and sightings of drones bringing illicit goods in had been common, although these were decreasing.

A spokesman for G4S, the private company which runs the prison, said: "The safety of staff and prisoners is our number one priority, and we do not tolerate violence.

"Managers take swift and robust action when serious incidents do happen. Such incidents are then referred to the police to support further prosecution.

"We have sufficient levels of staffing to run a stable, consistent and safe regime. We continue to drive recruitment to increase our staffing numbers which will enable us to broaden our current prison regime."

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