Prison officers will demand the immediate issue of electric stun guns to protect staff guarding Britain’s most dangerous jails when they meet the justice secretary this week.
Wednesday’s meeting with Shabana Mahmood was called after the attack on three guards at HMP Frankland, allegedly by the convicted terrorist Hashem Abedi. Two were seriously injured after being doused in hot cooking fat and stabbed, one five times in the torso, in a sustained assault.
The body representing prison officers will call for all staff to have stab vests, and also for electric stun guns for selected officers. It will also demand that an American “Supermax”-style regime is imposed on Britain’s worst inmates.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) wants electric stun guns issued to specialist teams in at least the highest-security prisons, to quell attacks that threaten the lives of officers.
The devices fire 50,000 volts to incapacitate a suspect, and are billed as a less lethal option than firearms, though some uses have been linked to deaths.
Abedi, 28, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman, is serving a 55-year sentence. The attack on the three officers happened in a kitchen area of the separation unit at HMP Frankland.
Mark Fairhurst, the chair of the POA, said: “We now need the tactical use of Taser as an option when faced with life-threatening situations. The threat in our prisons is such that we need that option available.”
Police officers across the UK can be issued with electric stun guns to use on the streets if they perceive sufficient threat.
Fairhurst said electric stun guns should be available for those guarding terrorists and other seriously violent convicted criminals when prison officers believed their livesor those of their colleagues were at risk.
He said: “Say staff are getting attacked by someone with a sharp-edged weapon, who is trying to kill them. All we have available at the moment is pava spray [similar to pepper spray] and a baton. When I call for assistance, what we need is a response team to turn up who have the option of using Taser.
“A sharp-edged weapon is as deadly as a knife. The idea we are going to fight them off with a baton and a canister of spray is putting my members’ lives at risk. You can’t run away, you are in an enclosed environment.”
The POA is asking for electric stun guns first to be given to response teams at the highest-security prisons, which all have separation units or their equivalent, for prisoners deemed to be highly dangerous or disruptive.
Those prisons include Frankland, where the attack took place on Saturday 12 April; Belmarsh, where Abedi had previously attacked officers; Full Sutton; Long Lartin and Whitemoor.
The meeting on Wednesday afternoon will be between the POA and Mahmood. Fairhurst said parts of prisons with the ultimate security should adopt “Supermax” rules.
In this plan, selected high-risk inmates would leave their cell only when handcuffed and escorted by three staff, there would be no mixing with other prisoners, and they would be restricted to their basic entitlement of rights and privileges.
Fairhurst said: “It’s called a separation centre for a reason. We’re just treating them like everyone else.”
He said the set of demands was reasonable and that he was hopeful, adding that the strength of feeling was such that the government would be “foolish not to consider them”.
The Ministry of Justice did not comment on whether it would consider issuing Tasers to some prison officers. The government has announced a review and has already banned inmates in separation units having access to knives or being allowed to prepare meals in kitchens.
“This will look into how this was able to happen, and what we must do to better protect our prison officers in the future,” Mahmood said on Friday.
The attacks are being investigated by counter-terrorism police because of Abedi’s past. They have searched the prison looking for where and how the makeshift blade was made, and signs of violent Islamist extremist literature.
Also in the separation unit at HMP Frankland was Anjem Choudary, serving life imprisonment after being convicted of directing a terrorist organisation, membership of a proscribed organisation, and encouraging support for a terrorist organisation.
