Swansea Prison inmate safety fear at 'pressure cooker' jail

Serious concerns have been raised over the safety of inmates at one of Britain's most overcrowded jails.

Prisoners in Swansea are "very often" confined to their cells for the entire weekend due to a lack of staff, BBC Wales has been told, but the Ministry of Justice has rejected.

A Welsh mental health charity said the facility was like "a pressure cooker".

The Prison Service said HMP Swansea is now fully staffed thanks to a recent programme to boost recruitment.

Swansea Prison is the third most overcrowded prison in the whole of England and Wales with 438 inmates. It was designed for 268.

Alun Davies, from the mental health charity Hafal, works with those involved in the criminal justice and prison system.

"The stories I hear from different sources who have been in prison is that very often on the weekend prisoners are locked up from Friday afternoon to Monday morning through lack of staff," he told BBC Wales' Newyddion 9.

"It's the only safe way in which staff can function when they're short staffed.

"That's not supposed to happen at all, they are supposed to have interactions with each other at various times of the day, and it goes without saying that situations like that form a pressure cooker, and things could easily get out of hand."

Latest figures from the Howard League for Penal Reform show the number of incidents of self-harm at Swansea have tripled, and there have been three suicides over the past three years.

Between 2013 and 2016 the rate of self-harm incidents at Swansea Prison rose from 34 to 149.

Parc Prison in Bridgend also recorded three suicides in 2016, but Parc holds four-times as many prisoners.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League, said the situation in Swansea was "really disgusting".

"It's smelly, people can't get showers, they've got nothing to do, they get very little food," she said.

"Of course, there's going to be as a result of that deteriorating mental health, there's going to be drugs and violence and assaults, and it puts the staff at serious risk."

A Prison Service spokesman said: "Transforming prisons into places of safety and reform is our top priority and we are tackling the challenges we face head-on.

"HMP Swansea is now fully staffed thanks to a dedicated programme to boost recruitment at the prison, and has also seen a reduction in violence following the introduction of body-worn cameras.

"We are also transforming the wider prison estate and investing £1.3bn to deliver up to 10,000 new places - replacing older sites with high-quality modern establishments."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said there were 162 staff in post adding: "It is untrue to say that the prison has been in lockdown. There has been no incidents of lockdown since May 2016.

"HMP Swansea has improved drug detection rates through the use of specially trained drug dogs."

Currently prison pop is 438. Capacity 500.