Young Offenders Institute officers probed

Jun 28 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

The institution, which holds more than 200 15 to 17-year-olds and 132 young adults aged 18 to 21, handled 36 complaints of physical assault or excessive force by staff over the two-year period.

Yet in August 2008 the centre received a glowing annual report from the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for its quality of care of inmates.

Tony Merricks said: “Prison officers are constantly criticised but we never read in the papers when someone has to have reconstructive surgery to their face because they have been assaulted at work.

“You never hear about the good work.

“They call them children but we don’t - they are extremely violent young men.

“It’s terribly unjust and no credit has been given to the fantastic work officers do with youth offenders. They are very difficult to deal with and often have mental health issues or violence issues.”

Mr Merricks said it could be several months before the officers learn if they can return to work or if they will be disciplined, based on an internal “Code of Discipline” investigation.

He said: “The report published last week made reference to the fact there was this person who had two broken wrists, and two members of staff have been suspended for the last two and a half years since it happened.

“An investigation was carried out at the time but there was no case to answer. The police threw it out, the CPS threw it out . . . everyone involved in the courts threw it out and they thought that was it.

“In the eyes of the law they have done nothing wrong.

“They have been suspended on full pay, but they don’t want to be getting full pay for sitting at home, they would much rather be back working with these young offenders.

“The average pay is around £28,000 for a prison officer, but it’s important to stress they never wanted to be sat at home.”

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Two members of staff have been suspended pending the outcome of an inquiry.”