The grim reality of life in Britain’s prisons was laid bare today by a damning set of figures which show the number of absconsions up, attacks up and drug use up.
Assaults in jails have almost doubled in the past decade with a record 31,025 attacks in the year to March, official figures for England and Wales show.
Meanwhile, 139 criminals absconded in the past year, up from 86 last year, with stats showing 24 of those who disappeared are still at large.
More than 5,700 mandatory drug tests carried out on inmates came back positive, with cannabis and opiates the most common drugs found.
The figures will raise further questions over whether authorities have lost control of prisons, following a withering report by the chief inspector.
Drug use, absconsions and attacks are all up in England and Wales’ jails, stats show today
The number of attacks represents an increase of 16% from the previous year and is almost twice the 15,644 assaults recorded in the year to March 2008, as surging levels of violence continue to sweep through jails.
The assaults were carried out at a rate of 364 per 1,000 prisoners, with a total of 3,926 classed as ‘serious’ – such as those which require medical treatment or result in fractures, burns or extensive bruising.
Within the total figure, there were a record 9,003 attacks on prison staff – up 26% from 2017 – with 892 classed as serious, the Ministry of Justice figures reveal.
The number of assaults on staff in the last three months up to March 2018 increased by 4% to 2,427 – the highest quarterly tally on record.
The MoJ report noted that there has been a change in how assaults on staff are recorded, which may have contributed to the increase.
It comes after Chief inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke said prisons are over-crowded, ‘fundamentally unsafe’ and conditions have ‘no place in the 21st Century’.
He said: ‘Violence, drugs, suicide and self‑harm, squalor and poor access to education are again prominent themes.’
Attacks on staff also rose. Pictured: Riot police heading into Winson Prison in December 2016
Publishing his annual report for 2017/18, Mr Clarke said: ‘I have seen instances where both staff and prisoners alike seem to have become inured to conditions that should not be accepted in 21st century Britain.
‘Terrible conditions that people seem to have lost the ability to recognise as not being good but also as not being bad. It’s just become the normal.’
Today’s stats show there were 46,859 incidents of self-harm among inmates last year, up by 16% compared with 2017, while the number of self-harming individuals increased by 8% to a new record high of 11,854.
In the year to March, there were 310 deaths in prison custody, a year-on-year fall of 2%.
There were five homicides, up from two the previous year and 77 self-inflicted deaths, down from 99 in 2017.