Prison officers blast poster campaign urging prisoners to ‘be smart’ and behave
PRISON officers have blasted a poster campaign urging lags to behave.
Notices have gone up as part of a drive to cut the soaring number of assaults at Britain’s most dangerous jails.
One declares: “Be Smart. Say no to Violence” while another says: “Zero tolerance to violence”.
Others warn lags they face being reported to police for attacks.
Some have appeared at Frankland Prison, Co Durham — home to some of the UK’s most violent cons where assaults on staff and inmates have jumped from 32 in 2014 to 136 last year.
The Category A jail, dubbed “Monster Mansion”, houses the likes of killers Ian Huntley, Levi Bellfield, Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and several terrorists.
One warder blasted: “These posters are regarded as a bad joke.
“Who do the Prison Service think they’re kidding? We need more prison officers not posters calling on dangerous criminals to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to violence.”
In the last few weeks an air ambulance had to be called into the jail after a prisoner was injured in a violent attack and assaults are now occurring at the rate of one every three days.
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The Prison Officers’ Association said some staff should be issued with Tasers to halt the rapid rise in violent attacks.
A spokesman said: “We’ve seen officers suffer life-changing and career-ending injuries.”
The Ministry of Justice said: “Violence in prisons will never be tolerated. Those involved will be punished.”
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