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Police in riot gear enter young offenders unit of prison, which POA says has had problems for past 12 months
Two prison officers were injured during a disturbance at a young offenders unit yesterday, the Prison Officer's Association said.
One guard was scalded with hot water and a female officer was assaulted in the incident which took place at around 5pm at Littlehey prison, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in a wing that holds around 60 prisoners aged 18 to 21.
After the confrontation at Littlehey, some prisoners refused to return to their cells, according to the Prison Service. Dozens of prison officers, wearing riot gear and holding shields, arrived in vans and marched into the prison. They took control of the prison at around 9.30pm without further injuries to staff or any injuries to prisoners, said the Prison Service.
A spokesman said the officers injured at Littlehey were treated at a healthcare unit of the prison, and did not require hospital treatment. Damage to the wing was said to be "superficial" and he said the perpetrators were in segregation and would be subject to disciplinary procedures.
The POA said there had been problems at the prison, including brawls and assaults, for the past 12 months. Ralph Valerio, of the body's national executive, said he became aware of yesterday's incident after he had visited the prison coincidentally yesterday afternoon to discuss health and safety problems with the governor.
He said he believed a jug of hot water containing sugar was thrown at a male prison officer. "It contained sticky sugar so it would stick to his skin," he said. "It has seriously burnt his face, but it hasn't stuck on his face."
The disturbance followed an incident at the weekend which involved a prison officer being hit on the head with a television set, said Valerio. In another incident a prisoner was found with a snooker ball in a sock inside his pocket and head-butted a member of staff and there had been numerous cases of prisoners "egging each other on" to cause further disturbances, he said.
The POA claims specialist Prison Service teams have been deployed about 300 times to deal with serious incidents in British prisons since May last year.
Just over a week ago, inmates went on the rampage and torched buildings at Ford Prison, near Arundel, West Sussex. A number were burned to the ground during the incident, which erupted in response to a clampdown on contraband alcohol.
Colin Moses, chairman of the POA, said frontline prison staff were "engaging in weekly hand-to-hand combat as prisoners try to take control of our prisons". In response to the incident at Ford he warned of more riots if "inappropriate prisoners" continued to be transferred to open prisons.
"The number of staff who are assaulted every day is on the increase and the cost to the taxpayer is immense," he said. "It is clear that the coalition government are ignoring the real issues and looking at short-term gains that will have long-term losses."
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