Prison Officers Urge Tasers for Safety in High-Risk Prisons
(MENAFN) Prison officers are set to urge the justice secretary for the immediate provision of electric stun guns to enhance their safety while working in the UK's most high-risk prisons. This request will be made during a meeting with Shabana Mahmood on Wednesday.
The push follows a violent incident at HMP Frankland in County Durham, where Hashem Abedi, one of the perpetrators of the Manchester Arena bombing, attacked officers with hot oil and makeshift weapons.
Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers' Association (POA), expressed their concern, stating that they are "calling for the tactical use of taser."
In response, Mahmood stated, "We must do better to protect our prison officers in the future."
Fairhurst added: “My concerns are that when we face life-threatening situations, we no longer have tactical options.” He further noted, "If extendible batons and incapacitant spray fail to work adequately, we have no other options available."
“That's why we are calling for the tactical use of taser. We want specially trained staff on site who respond to incidents with the ability to deploy taser to neutralise that threat.” He added, "At the moment we haven't got that."
At the present time, prison officers are only equipped with extendable batons and Pava incapacitant spray, a synthetic pepper spray.
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