ONE ASSAULT EVERY 8 HOURS IN GREATER MANCHESTER PRISONS

10.53.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th May 2009

Assaults in Greater Manchester prisons have shot up by over a third since 2004

Assaults in prisons in Greater Manchester occur on average once every eight hours, according to research from Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell.

The information, revealed in parliamentary answers to the Liberal Democrats shows that:

• There have been 4,140 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in prisons and young offenders' institutes across Greater Manchester in the last five years.

• In the same period there were 916 assaults by prisoners on prison officers.

• The number of assaults in prisons has continued to rise year-on-year, increasing from 829 assaults in 2004 to 1,132 in 2008 - a rise of over a third.

Hyndley combined Prison and Young Offenders' Institute was the worst offender, with assaults sky rocketing from just 76 in 2004 to 602 in 2008.

Commenting, Andrew Stunell said:

"It is completely unacceptable that an inmate attacks another inmate or prison officer nearly every eight hours in our overcrowded prisons. Our prisons are packed to the rafters, and prison officers are struggling to keep control.

"After over a decade of Labour in power, we are still struggling with a revolving door prison system that quite simply cannot cope. Prisons have become colleges of crime, and the large number of assaults shows that they are also extremely violent places.

"Ministers must realise that we cannot build our way out of the current prison crisis. It is vital that they take a longer-term view, and move, for example, drug addicts and people with mental health problems into more appropriate accommodation.

"More community sentencing for lower-level offences must also be considered, as an alternative to short prison sentences, which don't reduce the re-offending rate, and do nothing except help breed more hardened criminals."

ENDS