PRISONS are in a crisis that can no longer be ignored, a union leader warned today as MPs grilled justice minister Damian Hinds over staff shortages and a rising prison population.

Mr Hinds, along with prisons chief operating officer Michelle Jarman-Howe, gave evidence to the cross-party justice committee’ inquiry into the prison operational workforce on what the government is doing to recruit more prison officers and improve conditions.

In November, the committee launched the investigation after finding that there had been a fall of 600 staff in prison officer and custodial manager roles in the past 12 months. It said that the initiatives by the prison & probation service had not been effective.

The committee also heard concerns by the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody on the rising number of deaths of inmates and the capacity for the Ministry of Justice to keep people safe.

Prison Officers Association chairman Mark Fairhurst said that everything being highlighted by witnesses unconnected with the prison & probation service (HMPPS) confirm what the union have been stating for years: “The service is in crisis and we can no longer be ignored.”

“HMPPS directors can no longer cover up the truth,” he told the Morning Star. “A combination of poor wages, violent workplaces and an unrealistic retirement age of 68 has led to a cost-of-leaving crisis that sees more and more regimes severely restricted simply because we no longer have enough staff on duty to facilitate the most basic of tasks.

“Without investment in staff, investment in the infrastructure and support for the front line, our prisons will remain human warehouses instead of the places of hope and rehabilitation we all wish them to be.”