PRISON officers called for urgent action today to tackle soaring violence in jails as the latest figures show they have jumped by 14 per cent in a year.

In the 12 months to September 2024, there were 29,881 assaults on prisoners — equal to 34.2 per cent of inmates — in England and Wales, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

The number of deaths caused by assaults also rose by 18 per cent.

Attacks on staff members increased by 19 per cent, and the number of assaults categorised as serious rose by 22 per cent.

Prison Officers Association (POA) general secretary Steve Gillian said that the figures “expose the true picture of violence” in prisons.

POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst said: “[His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service] and MOJ cannot dismiss the evidence that is staring them in the face.”

He said that “urgent and sustained action” was needed to protect their members and the prisoners they look after.

“The POA continues to give HMPPS solutions to reduce the unacceptable levels of violence in our prisons, but they refuse to listen,” Mr Fairhurst said.

“It is time prison leaders left their ivory towers and started listening to the front line instead of forcing staff to work in unsafe prison regimes in pursuit of unlock periods that achieve little and are breeding violence against POA members.”

Howard League for Penal Reform’s Andrew Neilson said that the POA is “right to be concerned.”

He pointed to a recent report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons on how the overcrowded prison system has created “brutalising conditions and increasing violence,” and said: “The number of people currently crammed into our prisons is simply not feasible.

“And it comes as no surprise that assaults are rising while people are warehoused in cells for hours on end with nothing to do.

“Violence in prisons will remain a problem unless these numbers are greatly reduced, and it is crucial that more is done to ease pressure on prisons and address these startling figures.”

An MoJ spokesperson said it has “already taken difficult but necessary immediate action to stop our prisons from collapsing” and is now taking “long-term measures to fix prisons, reduce reoffending and cut crime.

“This includes building 14,000 more prison places and sentencing reform to ensure no government runs out of prison space again,” they said.