Prison violence

That this House notes with alarm the rapid increase in prison violence over the last decade, with levels of assaults peaking in 2019 before a partial reduction during the covid-19 pandemic lockdowns; further notes that rehabilitation is practically impossible inside violent prisons, meaning that offenders can leave prison more damaged and dangerous than when they arrive; welcomes the new Prisons Strategy White Paper as an opportunity to tackle both prison violence and the causes of prison violence as urgent priorities; believes the White Paper’s framework of key performance indicators should include violence against prisoners and staff as crucial metrics for judging management performance; further believes penalties for failing these metrics should include management fines, with this money used to improve prison staff injury compensation schemes; insists that rebuilding staff experience is key to reducing violence, and that improving the pay, terms and conditions of prison staff is a vital first step to solving the current recruitment and retention crisis; calls on the Government to adopt the proposals for safer systems of work in the Safe Inside Charter from the Joint Unions in Prisons Alliance, a coalition of nine national trade unions representing prison workers; and further calls on the Government to accept the pay review body’s recommendation of a £3,000 pay rise for entry-level prison officers, to halt plans for new private prisons until it is better understood why they are disproportionately more violent than public prisons, and to bring the pension age of prison officers back down to 60.