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Press releasesREF: PR/17/07 DATE: 27th February 2007 To: ALL POLITICAL PRESS RELEASE Prison Officer Receives Fractured Skull in Prison Riot at Young Offenders InstitutionPrison Officers are calling for an enquiry into local management after a riot on Sunday 25th February 2007 at Deerbolt Young Officers Institute in County Durham. The riot left four officers injured one with a fractured skull. The riot was predicted by local union officials a week ago. Prior warnings of increasing threats and violence leading up to last weekend’s disturbance were dismissed by local management as irrelevant. Members of staff are angry and frustrated with the attempted whitewash by management to absolve them from any responsibility for the incident. A wing was totally destroyed when forty young offenders went on the rampage after repeatedly kicking and hitting an officer causing a fracture to his skull. Steve Cox National Vice Chair of the POA said, “After visiting the aftermath and speaking to the staff involved, there is a lot of anger directed at local management for the failings to take head warnings given by experienced operational staff. The prison is under resourced, undermanned and holding violent prisoners from other parts of the country due to overcrowding. There was and still is a problem with rival gangs and all the intelligence gathered indicated that this wing was a potential time bomb waiting to explode. Our members deserve better”.
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