Jails staffing crisis 'could spark a riot'

BRITAIN could see another prison takeover on the scale of the infamous Strangeways riots due to staff shortages, insiders have warned.

- Jon Austin

An over-reliance on inexperienced officers meant that inmates were getting too much control, with drugs and mobile phones plentiful, it is claimed.

The Prison Officers' Association recently warned about chronic staff shortages and retention problems.

The alert came days after Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood unveiled plans for the early release of up to 20,000 inmates to ease chronic overcrowding.

Jo Taylor spent five years as a senior prison officer at HMP Wakefield, dubbed "Monster Mansion" because it houses many notorious killers such as Levi Bellfield and Ian Huntley.

She said last month's incident - when a male convict filmed another having sex with a female prison officer while he smoked cannabis at Wandsworth jail showed the system is out of control.

She asked: "How was she in there and where were the other staff?