“£5 Million Paid in Compensation to Prisoners Assaulted in Jail Over Final Decade”

In accordance with The Solar, prisoners have acquired over £5 million in compensation over the past decade for claims of being victims of violent assaults. The payouts have been made to a whole lot of inmates who alleged that they have been both attacked by fellow cons or jail officers. Many profitable compo claimants have been high-profile criminals, such because the serial killer Levi Bellfield, who was awarded £4,500 in 2014 for an assault at prime safety Wakefield jail, which left him with minor accidents. The Ministry of Justice was accused of being “in breach of its obligation” to maintain prisoners “moderately secure.” From 2014 till now, prisoners have been paid £4.21 million in claims for assaults from different prisoners in MoJ-run jails throughout England and Wales, as per figures obtained beneath freedom legal guidelines. In the meantime, jail officers have been paid out nearly £15 million throughout the identical interval in compensation claims after being attacked by inmates. The figures don’t embrace privately run prisons.

The compo pay-outs from assaults have helped gas the £21 million shelled out by jail officers to inmates over the previous 4 years for a variety of claims, together with breach of human rights. One inmate sued the jail service after legal professionals claimed that he had developed PTSD from rats operating over his mattress whereas serving a sentence in Wormwood Scrubs. Some regulation corporations now promote in jail newspaper Converse, providing inmates no win, no charge offers to sue. One advert positioned by regulation agency Jefferies Solicitors states: “You’ve misplaced your freedom however not your rights. In case you’re injured via no fault of your personal, you’ve received precisely the identical authorized rights to compensation as anybody else. Reality.” A spokesperson for the Jail Service said that it “efficiently defend[s] two-thirds of instances introduced by prisoners, and any money owed to victims and the courts are paid earlier than the offender sees a penny.”