Police called in to investigate jail `brutality' prison officers
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Your support makes all the difference.THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL of Prisons, Martin Narey, has asked police to investigate more allegations of brutality by prison officers after two inmates were badly beaten in a prison van. He has written to both victims to apologise for the "totally unacceptable" way they were treated.
Mr Narey said yesterday he hoped the police would gather evidence against the officers responsible and bring them before the criminal courts. The Prison Service has agreed to pay substantial damages to the two prisoners in an out-of-court settlement.
News of the latest incident follows the charging of 25 prison officers in connection with allegations of brutality at Wormwood Scrubs in west London. This came after a lengthy police investigation into complaints by around 80 former and serving inmates at the jail.
The Wormwood Scrubs inquiry is continuing and further charges could result. There are believed to be at least two other current police inquiries into alleged brutality at other prisons in addition to the one revealed by the director-general yesterday.
Mr Narey told The Independent that the settlement stemmed from an incident in 1995 when two prisoners were being transferred from Swaleside Prison in Kent to a jail in London. When the prison van broke down, officers from London arrived to pick up the prisoners. The inmates were then subjected to a vicious assault.
Mr Narey said: "I have written to them and offered my apologies. It's not good enough simply to settle out of court. If we have fallen below the standards expected of us and officers have let down their colleagues I am not going to accept it."
He said the great majority of prison staff were compassionate people, but added: "A small minority are not and I will get rid of them." Mr Narey said that the brutality had only been confirmed as a result of the testimony of other prison officers. He said: "If other staff are willing to come forward then the minority cannot survive. We need other staff to come forward and say this is not acceptable."
The director-general said the officers responsible had been based at a London jail other than Wormwood Scrubs at the time of the incident, but had since moved on.
Speaking in Rugby at the inaugural conference of Unlock, the national association for ex-offenders, Mr Narey announced that he was appointing for the first time a senior manager to take control of all women's prisons in England and Wales.
He said he was concerned at the rapid increase in the women's prison population to more than 3,000 and announced projects to help women obtain jobs on their release from jail.
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