BROCKHILL prison had the third highest level of serious assaults on prisoners or staff in England and Wales for 2003-2004.

A report published on behalf of the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) revealed the Tardebigge jail had a 6.17 per cent serious assault rate.

The average for a female local prison is 2.39 per cent.

A 3.66 per cent serious assault rate was recorded at Blakenhurst, the Category B prison average is 1.07.

Eleven prisons in England and Wales recorded no serious assaults, including Hewell Grange.

A Measure of Success, compiled by Enver Solomon, is an analysis of the Prison Service's performance against its Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

PRT spokesman Kimmett Edgar said: "Although this figure for serious assault in Brockhill is high, the report only looks at assaults which are reported and receive a positive disciplinary adjudication.

"A large number of assaults may go unreported or the prisoner may be found not guilty.

"There are also differences with what is classed as a serious assault.

"Some prison governors and their staff may decide it's best to not take an incident further where as elsewhere, staff may take a more serious view of a similar incident."

A Prison Service spokesman said: "HMP Brockhill exceeded its target for reducing assaults last year.

"With a small operational capacity of 151 there's always potential for a few inmates to cause a considerable amount of disruption and distort statistics.

"There's been only one serious assault so far this year, compared to five at about the same point last year.

"Last year, half the population at Brockhill were young offenders and juveniles who are known to be more volatile and cause more disruption.

"The juvenile element of the population was removed at the end of last year and the number of young offenders reduced."