Furious prison officers threaten to ‘take control’ of every jail in the country in protest at explosion in violence behind bars

FURIOUS prison officers have sensationally threatened to “take control” of every jail in the country in protest at the explosion in violence behind bars.

Justice Secretary Liz Truss has agreed to urgent talks with union chiefs and the Prison Officers Association in a desperate attempt to see off the radical move.

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The showdown will take place tomorrow – 24 hours before the Minister is due to unveil her flagship prison reform proposals.

The union has also been promised new talks on pay and pensions. Shock figures last week laid bare the “bloodbath” in UK prisons with a stunning 23,775 attacks on guards and inmates recorded in the year to June – up 34 per cent.

The Sun can reveal the POA instructed members to be ready to effectively seize control of jails tomorrow by putting them in “shut-down”.

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This would have seen officers introducing their own regime - and essentially only allowing lags out for food and health appointments.

Sources claimed the Ministry of Justice threatened legal action before agreeing to talks.

POA general secretary Steve Gillan told the Sun the union would now wait to hear what the Justice Secretary had to say before deciding whether to go through with their threat.

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Michael Spurr, the head of the National Offender Management Service, has also taken the extraordinary step of allowing union branch meetings in every jail tomorrow morning.

In a letter seen by the Sun, he added: “At a national level we will commit to urgent talks to address issues of concern relating to health and safety and recruitment and retention of staff.

“In addition we separately commit to continuing our wider discussions on prison reform including pay and pensions.”

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Prison Officers Association general secretary Steve Gillan told the Sun: “The total mismanagement of our prisons at the highest level is an absolute disgrace and a national scandal.

“The POA have had to threaten Government and senior officials in the Prison Service that we would effectively take back control of our jails for them to start to take the issue of safety seriously.

“Their own statistics on safety are damning.”

The POA represents 23,000 officers across England and Wales.

Last week the MoJ for the first time admitted that budget cuts had contributed to the explosion in violence in our jails. In July, Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke said too many prisons were “unacceptably violent and dangerous places”.