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GOVERNMENT cuts are leaving prison officers unable to deal with violent young offenders wrongly put in adult institutions, delegates to guards’ union POA heard yesterday.
Disruptive young offenders are placed in adult prisons under current policy but the influx has led to an increase in violence in adult prisons — which the POA said were ill-equipped to deal with the new arrivals.
At London’s Wormwood Scrubs an officer was stabbed by a young offender with hypodermic needle filled with floor stripper.
MARK FAIRHURST highlights the main issues facing officers in a long neglected service, and raised by front-line delegates at POA conference last week, including understaffing, violence, bullying and the ongoing denial of workers’ right to strike
Working in a high-risk sector, prison officers’ calls for proper PPE must be heeded – and the POA will be fighting to ensure effective protection at work is delivered, writes MARK FAIRHURST
