The harsh reality of working in UK's most notorious prisons | ITV News

tonight scientific news has a special report giving unprecedented Insight behind the bars of one of Britain's toughest top security jails hm president belmarsh is a category a Men's prison in southeast London housing some of the country's most dangerous criminals now for months we've been following new prison offices on a fast track scheme aiming to solve the problem of acute understaffing across England and Wales one of the major problems is Staff retention nearly half of all officers who left the service last year had been on staff for less than three years more than a quarter left after less than one year staff are also facing a growing number of assaults more than seven thousand in the 12 months to June and that's up four percent on the previous 12 months our social Affairs correspondent Sarah Corker has this exclusive report on a scheme to Fast Track new staff at belmarsh being a prison officer is a dangerous job the World Behind the barbed wire is a volatile secretive place we'd always do moves via radio we've been given exclusive access to new recruits working in the country's most notorious prisons is there going to be like more staff is this restraint going to become like more aggressive and more violent will I have to draw my baton there's literally like so many questions going through your head officer Brown is on an early shift at belmarsh a maximum security male Prison from shoplifters to terrorists there are all kinds of high-risk criminals here she's had a radical career change from anthropology graduate to prison guard and how long have you been at belmarsh for now coming up to three months now and she's already responded to two violent incidents I think both of them were again prisoner of frustration and then lashing out on staff if that makes sense so it led to lack of prisoner punching a staff member was that scary really yeah it is because you're like when you're running into it you don't know what you're running into and that unknown is really scary um and how has it made me feel it's a little bit nerve-wracking just in terms of like this is actually happening now like this isn't training anymore this is real life this is Alpha three we first met the officers back in July during their intensive training they could have worked in law or medicine but instead a part of the two-year unlocked scheme which recruits high-flying graduates to work in prisons what was the reaction from family and friends I'll be honest with my friends that laughs and said you'll never be able to do it just shock like more in our shots so it was a mixture most of it was don't do it you'll get killed after just six weeks of training they're sent onto the front line yeah you should take it off your shoes as well serious violence is on the increase on average 20 prison officers are assaulted every day this block is for lifers and those serving long sentences officer Withers swapped a career in finance for maximum security do you think you made the right decision I think I definitely did and I think it is a huge turnaround but also a lot of the skills are very transferable so you have to deal with sometimes situations which are you have limited resources under intense time pressures but that's all part of the job is learning how to do that effectively and becoming good at that so I've been on air now for just under two years this prisoner picks his words carefully it must be quite daunting for the staff as well because obviously this this prison does have a reputation you've got the old staff training the new staff obviously they're sort of rabbits in the headlights so to say that I think they've done really well but keeping staff in the prison service is a major problem the governor here refutes there's any crisis what about overcrowding I mean we heard recently the government saying our prisons are nearly full and they need to use police cells to help with that overflow I mean how much of a problem is overcrowding so I'm not seeing that impact at belmarsh as yet however I am a prison that focuses on the courts because I have people on remand waiting to go to court and so we know that some people's cases are not listed until 2023 2024. so trying to get people move through the system is really difficult a lot of people are saying our prisons are in crisis are they I'll only talk about belmus prison and what I see is a prison that wants to make a difference and has made a difference the latest inspection found improvements but also warned prisoners still spent very long periods of time locked behind their doors the reality is there are too many prisoners and too few staff there's been a mass Exodus of experience one in seven officers left the service last year and half of them had less than three years in the role Staffing shortages have serious consequences in places like this we are starting to treat people like animals again for 11 years Neil worked in strange ways before an attack by a prisoner left him injured and with PTSD the prisons getting more dangerous very much so I think now there's no experience or very little the people who've been in a job a long time are probably on the edge you know extremely stressed come very dangerous very hostile place again like it used to be um I think getting the right type of people for the job I think we've got to a point where it's just bombs on seats it's often seen as a low status job that back at belmarsh the unlocked recruits all want to make a difference I don't know what I expected the only thing I knew about prison was what I saw in Tully mum of two officer Joelle is passionate about rehabilitating even the most hardened criminals I think people need a second chance sometimes circumstances may have legit to do something that you may not necessarily be proud of and it may lead it on the line of imprisonment but does that mean that we should not give some that person a second chance if they are ready to kind of turn their life around if that makes sense hence the reason why I wanted to be in the prison system to address overcrowding the government says it's creating 20 000 more prison places but convincing people to work here is still a major challenge Sarah Corker ITV News inside belmarsh prison

Channel: ITV News

Views: 193,734

Keywords: Prisons

Id: T2fJ3Q9wBAQ

Length: 6min 31sec (391 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2022