‘Strike’ is an emotive word, especially when it involves public servants like prison officers who perform such a vital role. I was at Worcester Crown Court on Friday and saw first hand the disruption the walkout caused, including the delay of a criminal trial. Across England and Wales this illegal action had a dramatic impact, particularly on victims, defendants and their families, perhaps anxiously awaiting a verdict or sentencing decision. This is before we mention the effect on the public purse and the inconvenience to judges, barristers, juries and even lowly and much maligned hacks. You may think from what you’ve read so far (if you’re still reading), that I’m vehemently against such action. Not a bit of it. These men and women had a good reason, the best imaginable, to walk out in the face of an epidemic of violence and abuse. Judges may well express their ‘displeasure’ as Jeremy Richardson QC did but it is not those in such exalted positions who daily face having their bones broken. When was the last time a judge suffered a fractured eye socket or a bleed on the brain? When was the last time a judge had excrement or urine thrown at them? For now at least, the judiciary is in control of the courts, the judges well insulated from those they imprison. This control appears to have been entirely lost within Her Majesty’s prisons. If HMP Bedford is anything to go by our prisons are coming to resemble the inner circles of Hell - violent, overcrowded and vermin-infested cesspits in which neither man nor beast is fit to tread. Perhaps even the rats would leave if they could only find the way out. Prisons minister Rory Stewart has branded the POA irresponsible but he does not have to live every day with the terrible risks faced by prison officers. Unless something radical and innovative is done soon HMP will come to stand not for Her Majesty’s Prisons but 'Horror Mayhem, Pandemonium'.
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