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Press releasesREF: PR/24/07 DATE: 3rd May 2007 To: ALL POLITICAL PRESS RELEASE Staffing Crisis in Britain's PrisonsThe POA identified the mismanagement of the public sector Prison Service today. The union has accused the Prison Service of running prisons through enforced additional hours to save money on recruiting and training prison officers and in paying their pensions. Prisons in England and Wales are holding a record amount of prisoners – currently over 80,000 – with hundreds being held in police cells. The Prisons Service Board in England and Wales has attempted to “gag” the union by Court action and an application for a Contempt Order, which will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London at 10.30am on Tuesday 8th May 2007. Colin Moses, the National Chairman of the POA stated: “The Prisons Board are attempting to cover up their mismanagement of the current crisis in the staffing of our prisons by taking the union to court over the union’s policy that demands all prisons to be correctly and safely staffed.” Brian Caton, General Secretary added: “The intransigent attitude of senior Prison Service officials in refusing to activate meetings arranged in September 2006 by the Prisons Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, and Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, will plunge our prison system into further crisis. The Prison Service should be immediately instructed to sort out its problems through talks with the POA rather than bullying the union and blaming it for their own failures.” The POA has instructed its branches at all prisons throughout England and Wales to hold meetings outside every prison during their lunch hour on Tuesday 8th May 2007 to update the POA membership and the media regarding the court action being taken against the union.
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