Staying safe in prison

Keeping prison staff safe by enhancing capability.

Providing a safe working environment for staff is a top priority for Corrections.

To help keep prison staff safe, Corrections has been working with unions on a prison staff safety project.

Acting Manager of Service Development Rachel Leota says prisoner violence to staff is a very serious issue.

“It is vitally important that we are proactive in mitigating it,” she says.

The prison staff safety project team analysed over 1800 prisoner assaults on staff from the last five years. It found that the most common type of assault is a punch to the head (36 per cent of assaults) followed by pushing (20 per cent). If a weapon is used, it is usually liquid (such as hot tea, water, or urine) thrown into the face.

As a result of the assault analysis and an in-depth review of how other countries are dealing with the problem, Corrections is now implementing two areas of work:

• training in tactical communication and ‘de-escalation’ techniques to help staff manage potentially violent situations more effectively, and
   
• introducing personal protective equipment in high-risk situations to protect staff from injuries.

Corrections officers already work closely with prisoners, listening to their concerns, and it is important that they can proactively work with prisoners to solve problems in non-aggressive ways.

To better support this, three days of specific training in de-escalation techniques will be given to all corrections officers
(around 4,500 people), unit managers and prison managers.

Learning and Development Manager Denise Amesbury says these techniques are about assessing a volatile situation and deciding
how best to deal with it.

“A lot of our best corrections officers use these techniques naturally already.

“Methods include using verbal and body language skills to reduce anger and tension, disengaging, or delaying a response and
calling for back-up,” she says.

Corrections has looked at best practice in the UK and USA and examined comparable organisations such as the Police and
Customs. We have further developed their models to fit our culture and environment.

Prisons with double-bunking will get the de-escalation training first, starting at the end of September 2009. Then the training will be rolled out to the rest of the country within 12 months.

As well as tactical communication and de-escalation training, Corrections is introducing three pieces of personal protective
equipment; stab-proof vests, batons and spit-hoods (breathable bags which are put over a prisoner’s head if he or she is spitting at staff, which is especially risky when the prisoner has a communicable disease).

The equipment will not be available as part of the everyday kit for the majority of corrections officers, but it will be available in certain situations, such as high-risk escorts, or if officers are planning a ‘control and restraint’ manoeuvre where they must use physical force to restrain a violent and aggressive prisoner.

Corrections is also planning a pepper spray trial to determine whether it is appropriate for use in prisons.