ENGLAND’S jails are “sleepwalking” into another bout of riots, an officer at Bedford jail warned yesterday.

At the peak of an autumn of prison unrest last year, 200 prisoners rioted at HMP Bedford over lockdowns and poor conditions.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) has blamed increasing violence on cuts, overcrowding and underfunding. Over 7,000 posts have been axed since 2010.

At the POA’s conference in Southport yesterday, Martin Field, a union branch official at the category-B prison, said: “We are sleepwalking into the next riot.

“The minute we reopen our wings, rest assured the same things are happening, it will happen again.”

His warning came as POA acting chairman Mark Fairhurst said jails must get “back to basics” with “order, discipline and control.”

He said that guards faced “living under a North Korean state” as they were denied pay rises and employment rights.

Mr Fairhurst also criticised the government’s closure of old, inner-city prisons amid the current crises.

“Would it not make more sense to keep every prison open while you build the new ones to reduce overcrowding?” he asked. “While you have overcrowding, you’ll never have reform.”

Violence in British prisons hit a record high last year, with 26,022 assaults — up from 20,518 in 2015.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss has promised more staff for Britain’s toughest prisons.

But workers say these will only make up for a fraction of the lost jobs, and that prisons are still losing “more staff then we can retain or recruit.”

After a string of prison riots last autumn, the union called on its members to stop working for 24-hours.

Prison officers are banned from going on strike and the government managed to secure an injunction forcing them to return to work.

Mr Fairhurst said the union may have to consider defying the law if it is to achieve its objectives.

He asked: “Should we have stayed out [on strike]? You either take the legal advice, or we ignore it. At some point if that legal advice says we return to work … we’re going to have to ignore it.”