Prison officers are urging Boris Johnson’s Government to provide them with PPE and ramp up coronavirus testing in prisons across the country as they suffer terrible abuse at the hands of prisoners. A prison officer who asked to remain anonymous told Express.co.uk their colleagues are being “spat on” by prisoners who either claim to have coronavirus or already present symptoms. 

They said prison officers have been left to break fights between prisoners with no PPE and have been left to work in dangerous conditions with unprecedented low levels of staffing as more than 7,000 officers remain at home in self-isolation. The source lamented less than 50 prisoners out of 2,000 were provided with COVID-19 tests in their prison. 

They said: “The only PPE available at the prison I work in is for officers that have to take a prisoner with COVID-19 to hospital, when this happens the officer has to be cuffed to the prisoner, so it is understandable that the only PPE our establish has is kept for this use.

“Officers have to stay with the prisoner for the duration of time they are hospitalised and it is concerning that there is not sufficient PPE for officers on COVID wards, especially when changing over shifts.

“In addition, the rest of the officers working in the prisons don’t have anything at all. Numerous times a day officers are having to break up fights unprotected, they are being spat at by prisoners who claim to be symptomatic and they are having to serve meals to those that have tested positive for COVID-19. Surely officers should be in PPE all of the time?

“I work in an establishment that holds over 2000 prisoners, we have huge numbers isolated but have only been allowed to test less than 50 due to the shortage of testing. There is a massive number of cases over the whole of the prison network but this doesn’t seem to be being reported or any concern raised.

“We have huge operational staff shortages due to symptoms and the pressure this puts onto the whole prison regime is immense.”

They added: “We as staff are told business as usual, which to an extent it should be but we have major concerns about the amount of unnecessary staff that are being ordered into work. There are over 45 administration staff in our establishment that are told to come into work daily, they have nothing or very little work to do as a lot of their work has been frozen.

“The full departmental staffing of the non-operational staff means that there is little social distancing as it is impossible with the departments staffed to full capacity. They also have no PPE, not even sanitiser or work station cleaning products, they are also expected to hot desk.

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“The administration staff have raised concerns but have been told they have to be in work and cannot work from home as there are no laptops available. These staffs are putting lives at risk, their own and their families for being forced into crowded offices daily to do hardly anything. This again is a nationwide problem.”

Echoing their concerns, Mark Fairhurst, Chair of the Prison Officers Association, told Express.co.uk about 7,000 officers are at home with symptoms but have been refused tests for coronavirus and cannot return to work. 

Mr Fairhurst also urged the Government to apply the same protocol for NHS workers to prisons staff whilst coronavirus continues to spread across the country.

He said: “The biggest issue my members face on the frontline surrounds adequate PPE being supplied so they can do their duties making sure that they are protected from those people who are either being diagnosed with COVID-19 or are displaying symptoms of the virus.”

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He added: “There’s also the issue of we need to be tested for COVID-19.

“When you consider we’ve got over 7,000 staff at home self-isolating.

“If they were tested they would be able to return.

“But also, we don’t know what we’re carrying in or what we’re carrying out.

“So we would like to be tested as a matter of urgency.”

Mr Fairhurst confirmed only prisoners displaying symptoms of COVID-19 have been provided with tests so far and no officer has been tested. 

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