Prison officers as younger as 17 are ‘exploited’ by lags, UK’s high governor warns
Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons for the UK, has warned that guards are now too young and risk being ‘exploited’ and taken advantage of by criminals
Young prison officers risk being ‘exploited’, it has been claimed(Image: Getty Images)
Britain’s Chief Inspector of Prisons has warned warders are too young and risk being “exploited” by hardened criminals behind bars.
Charlie Taylor revealed that in one case a 17-year-old girl was recruited as a officer.
He said governors fear young and inexperienced staff with little training could be manipulated and taken advantage of by dangerous prisoners.
Mr Taylor has urged the prison service to deliver anti-corruption training on a rolling basis to better protect vulnerable junior guards even though some are “brilliant”.
He said: “Lots of governors are very worried about staff corruption. I think some of the recruitment vetting processes are not always adequate.
“For example, a 17-year-old girl was recruited as a prison officer and spent some time working in the jail before someone twigged that she was underage – which is pretty alarming.”
The last available official statistics from September show that a third of prison officers have less than three years’ experience while a quarter have been in the service for more than a decade.
Mr Taylor said menacing inmates attempt to exploit staff by creating situations where the officers owe them a favour and will then blackmail them into bringing in contraband or other demands.
He added: “What they’ll do is that a new member of staff will start. They’ll set a couple of prisoners on him or her. Start bullying them, giving them a really hard time.
“And then some very charming person will come along and say, ‘Leave them alone. How dare you speak to her like that. Don’t worry, love, you’re with me.’
“By then they’ve already begun to reel that person in and begin a collusive-type relationship. That immediately is something that sophisticated prisoners can start to try and exploit.”
Tom Wheatley, president of the prison governors’ association, has claimed that current training for officers is not up to scratch and has called for an increase.
He said: “I don’t think we are training prison officers enough. At the minute, training is about seven weeks, and you do a one-day refresher on the use of force a year.
“If we gave staff more training, perhaps that would help officers feel that they could cope with violence and pressure and could be more effective in building relationships with prisoners.
