Prison Officers: Mandatory Body Armour Debate
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Jayne Kirkham
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Prison Officers: Mandatory Body Armour
Jayne Kirkham Excerpts(1 day, 14 hours ago)
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Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts. I thank the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) for securing the debate and for writing to tell me it was happening—otherwise I would not have known.
I am here mainly because I have a very good friend who was a prison officer. A number of years ago, he received an award for exceptional service. He took along his young daughter, and I think the video of what happened must have been shown, because afterwards she begged her dad to give up that job, and he eventually did. That stayed in my head for a very long time—what she saw had happened in the prison that day—so I have taken an interest in the issue since.
I have been in this place for only 20 months, but I have met the justice unions parliamentary group secretary and gone to HMP Wandsworth. When I went round the prison, it was obvious that the cuts over the last decade mean that a large number of officers have gone and there is a lack of experience on the landings. There are now perhaps just half the number of officers.
When I was there, the alarm went off, and it amazed me how all the officers literally ran towards the violence—that is what they have to do—and locked all the doors behind them. It was an education for me. There are examples of good practice at Wandsworth: I saw the new neurodivergent wing, which was working extremely well. There are positive things, of course, but what I saw there stayed with me. The officers and the governor are doing the best they can with what they have, but the lack of experience, and the fact that that will need to be rebuilt over a number of years, is telling.
Like a number of other hon. Members, I am asking the Minister to mandate stab-proof vests across the entire adult male closed estate, not just the separation centres. When the new uniforms come out from August, the heavy belts could be replaced with the more practical vests, so that the weight can be distributed around the prison officer’s body.
Mr Clive Betts (in the Chair)
We move on to the Front Benchers, who are entitled to 10 minutes each. I hope that we can allow at least two minutes for Julian Lewis to wind up at the end. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.