News In Focus
30 December 2005
"Danger" claim from Reliance staff hours
Staff at the private security firm Reliance in charge of prisoners in hospital, on home visits or attending funerals are working dangerously long hours, leading to risk of prisoner escapes, according to a union official.
Steve Farrell, Assistant General Secretary of the Prison Service Union, claimed that guards employed by the company, which took over the "non-core" duties last January in addition to its role escorting prisoners toand from court, are working shifts averaging anything between 12 and 16 hours - and in extreme cases up to 20 hours.
As a result, he stated, tired workers responsible for dangerous prisoners are in danger of letting their guard drop and their prisoners escape, putting both themselves and the public at risk.
Reliance has accepted that staff numbers need to increase due to the size of the prison population - now about 7,000 - and is attempting to recruit another 12 guards to add to its existing 110. Mr Farrell said this would help but not resolve the whole problem.
The company recently lost out to a rival bidder for the contract to monitor the electronic tagging of offenders from April 2006.