Prison and probation staffing in England and Wales is approaching dangerously low levels, the Ministry of Justice has admitted.
The comments were published by mistake on a Government website as part of an 8 million pound contract awarded to a London company, Peoplescout, who manage the Ministry of Justice’s recruitment marketing.
The BBC understands the document was not meant to be seen by the public.
The document blames ‘government commitments on prison expansion and high staff attrition levels’ for the shortages.
It warned 15% of prisons are expected to have less than 80% of prison staff that they need.
And on the probation service, a third of regions in England and Wales have less than 80% of the probation officers they need.
The document was uncovered by the Labour party. The Shadow Justice Secretary, Steve Reed, said the whole country would be alarmed at the warning which had been published in error.
“Thirteen years of Conservative incompetence have left our probation service in tatters. Violent criminals are left to roam the streets without proper supervision, placing the public at serious risk.
“If a third of the country has ‘dangerously low levels’ of probation officers, we risk seeing even more cases where violent criminals who never should have been released from prison in the first place are left unsupervised to strike again.”
Image source, Met Police
HM Chief Inspector of Probation found failings in the murder of Zara Aleena
Earlier this year, HM Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, said the service had failed at every stage to assess the risk of Damien Bendall who murdered his partner, her two children and their eleven-year-old friend.
The Chief Inspector also found failings in the case of
Jordan McSweeney, who sexually assaulted and murdered law graduate, Zara Aleena, nine days after he was released from prison on licence. McSweeney, a man with a history of violence, was wrongly assessed by staff as a “medium risk.”
They were said to be under mounting pressure at the time.
Zara Aleena’s aunt, Farah Naz, accused the Probation Service of having blood on its hands.
In February, internal figures, seen by the BBC, showed that some probation officers in England and Wales had workloads twice as large as their recommended capacity.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We have hired a record 4,000 probation officers since 2021 and we will recruit up to 5,000 more prison officers by the mid-2020s to steer offenders away from crime and keep people safe.”
