The justice secretary is blaming her predecessors for the crisis in prisons and says that there are too few officers to run them properly.
Liz Truss told MPs that staff shortages and the drug and violence problems gripping jails in England and Wales would last for months.
In a Commons statement on last week’s riot at Birmingham prison, she said that it would take time for the extra money she announced this year to remedy the problems.
“We don’t have sufficient staff in our prisons, which is why the additional investment is being put in by the government,” she said.
About 400 prisoners were moved out of Birmingham after 12 hours of disturbances, which left four wings uninhabitable. Two are likely to be out of commission for at least eight weeks and the other two for even longer.
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At Cardiff prison yesterday four inmates who had been moved from Birmingham barricaded themselves in a cell in protest. The incident was resolved after two hours.
Ms Truss told MPs that the prisons minister was holding daily meetings with senior officials to look at risk factors that might lead to trouble in other prisons.
She said that since becoming justice secretary in July she had acted to create a more stable service by “investing in staff so we have our prisons staffed at a proper level”.
Asked by Angela Eagle, the Labour MP for Wallasey, to admit that cutting £700 million from the prison service since 2010 was the cause of the problems and had proved a false economy, Ms Truss said that since taking the job she had been clear that more staff were needed to face problems of psychoactive drugs, mobile phones and gangs.
The number of frontline prison officers fell by 7,000 from 25,903 in March 2010 to 18,004 in September this year. Kenneth Clarke and Chris Grayling, her predecessors, had cut jail budgets and Ms Truss’s comments were taken as criticism of the two men for allowing staff numbers to fall so greatly.
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John Thornhill, president of the National Council of Independent Monitoring Boards, which oversees prisons, said that his members had questioned whether staffing was adequate. “The low staffing levels mean that prisoners are denied their rightful access to a range of facilities; they become frustrated, tension and violence increase and become more widespread,” he said.
“The result, as we have seen in recent weeks, is an increase in riots that damage the system and individuals.”
Ms Truss has won extra cash from the Treasury to recruit an additional 2,500 officers. “The issues in our prisons are long-standing and they are not going to be completely solved in weeks or even months,” she said.
G4S, which runs Birmingham jail, will bear all the costs of the riot.
How the justice secretaries compare on prison reform
Gove’s proposal £1.3 billion investment in new prisons, five by 2020
Truss’s green paper £1.3 billion investment in new prisons, five by 2020. Proposed sites include Glen Parva and Wellingborough in the east Midlands
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Gove Pilot ‘reform’ prisons giving governors more flexibility to run jails
Truss Pilot of six reform prisons continues. Promises to create reform prisons
Gove Allow prisons to have independent legal status similar to academy schools
Truss No mention of giving independent legal status
Gove Successful prisons could take over bad ones
Truss Leadership of failing jails could be replaced
Gove League tables to assess skills, education, time out of cells and hours of purposeful activity
Truss Performance measures for every prison and league tables in areas including assaults, escapes, improvement in English and maths, drugs and jobs
Gove Closure and sale of Victorian inner-city jails in “old for new” building plan
Truss Close the most outdated prisons in “old for new scheme”
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Gove Increased autonomy for governors
Truss Governors to get power over education, work, family ties, offender behaviour and resettlement programme and greater influence over healthcare provision from next year.
Gove GPS tagging to allow greater use of release on temporary licence for working prisoners
Truss Pilot launched in summer
Gove Give governors more discretion in operation of incentives for prisoners
Truss Governors to get greater flexibility over use of release on temporary licence to allow prisoners to take jobs and serve part of their sentence