Prisoners who claim to have been roughed up in jail have shared more than £2.7million in compensation payouts
The total — over the past six years — is on top of £1.8million paid out to prison staff in two years
LAGS have won more than £2.7 million in compensation for being roughed up in Britain’s violent jails.
Hundreds were awarded tens of thousands of pounds each after claiming they were beaten up other prisoners – or sometimes guards.
But assaults on prison staff have also soared to a chilling new level, with staff claims hitting £1.8 million in the past two years.
The eye-watering bill give a fresh insight into the mounting disorder behind bars.
New official figures reveal that in just one year, 20 lags pocketed £515,000 in compo – an average of £25,000 each.
In another year, 15 others were awarded a total of £115,000 after making similar claims.
The total cost of compo paid to lags alone topped £2.7 million over the past six years, according to figures obtained under freedom of information laws.
This comes on top of a hefty legal bill which reached £29 million in 2015.
Last night an MP described the cost as a “sick joke” which has made Britain a “laughing stock”.
The latest figures emerged months after ministers ordered a crackdown on the soaring cost of prisoner compensation.
It followed a string of attempts by inmates to sue the prison service for minor bumps, scratches or for lost or damaged possessions.
Other lags have been accused of inflicting wounds on themselves or concocting stories with others to defraud the prison service.
But in the last two years alone, 66 prisoners were awarded a total of £580,000, according to Ministry of Justice figures.
Levi Bellfield, who murdered Milly Dowler, was paid £4,500 in July 2014 after being attacked by another prisoner.
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Lee Rigby’s killer Michael Adebolajo is also understood to be seeking compensation after claiming his front teeth were knocked out in an attack while he was on remand in 2013.
Soham murderer Ian Huntley made a compensation claim of about £15,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority after being attacked by a fellow lag at Frankland jail, Co Durham in 2011.
Tory MP Philip Davies said: “Criminals eventually go to prison, shop at Amazon, get out automatically halfway through their sentence and if they play their cards right pick up a huge slab of compensation as a reward for their criminal behaviour.
“It is a sick joke and it is about time a Conservative government started to get tough. Sun readers will be rightly disgusted.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We have cut our costs in this area by more than £1million over the past year. We robustly defend all compensation claims and are successful in two thirds of cases brought against us by prisoners.”