1 day ago
14
The Conservatives have called for some prison officers to have access to firearms to counter “out of control” Islamist gangs and violent prisoners.
The shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, said specialist teams should be armed with Tasers, stun grenades, and in some circumstances lethal weapons.
He also called for high-collar stab vests to be provided to frontline officers right away, citing the threat from inmates after recent attacks on prison officers.
“Islamist gangs and violent prisoners in our jails are out of control. It’s a national security emergency, but the government is dithering,” he said in the Telegraph.
“If they don’t act soon, there is a very real risk that a prison officer is kidnapped or murdered in the line of duty, or that a terrorist attack is directed from inside prison.”
Jenrick said he had commissioned Ian Acheson, a former prison governor, to carry out a rapid review.
“We have to stop pussy-footing around Islamist extremists and violent offenders in jails,” Jenrick wrote. “That means arming specialist prison officer teams with Tasers and stun grenades, as well as giving them access to lethal weapons in exceptional circumstances.
“If prison governors can’t easily keep terrorist influencers and radicalising inmates apart from the mainstream prisoners they target, then we don’t control our prisons – they do. We must take back control and restore order by giving officers the powers and protection they need.”
It come after attacks by high-profile inmates. The Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi targeted prison staff with boiling oil and homemade weapons in a planned ambush last month. The Southport killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly attacked a prison officer with boiling water at HMP Belmarsh this month.
The justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has ordered a snap review into whether stab vests should be used more routinely, and a trial that will give specialised officers dealing with serious incidents Tasers is due to be launched in the summer.
Officers already have access to batons and Pava spray, a synthetic form of pepper spray, in men’s prisons in the public sector.
A Ministry of Justice source said the government has a “zero-tolerance approach” to violence and extremism in prisons.
“The last government added just 500 cells to our prison estate, and left our jails in total crisis. In 14 years they closed 1,600 cells in the high-security estate, staff assaults soared, and experienced officers left in droves. Now the arsonists are pretending to be firefighters.
“This government is cleaning up the mess the last government left behind. We are building new prisons, with 2,400 new cells opened since we took office. And we take a zero-tolerance approach to violence and extremism inside.”
