PAY, recruitment and retention issues must be addressed in Britain’s prisons, unions have demanded after a damning report warned that inmates at a Norfolk jail are suffering from poor conditions due to staffing shortages.

Prisoners at HMP Wayland — a category C men’s jail — are “breaking rules without challenge” amid a lack of experienced prison officers, HM Inspectorate of Prisons said in its latest report.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said that standards of behaviour in the “under-staffed prison had slipped,” saying: “With experienced prisoners and inexperienced staff, there is a real risk that things could get much worse.”