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The Chief Inspector of Prisons has warned that new recruits are being 'groomed' by sophisticated criminals
The number of prison officers facing disciplinary action for "inappropriate" relationships with inmates has almost tripled in seven years, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures.
Data obtained through Freedom of Information requests showed that 12 staff members were disciplined over inappropriate relationships with prisoners or former inmates in 2017/18.
The cases have frequently involved inexperienced officers being drawn into romantic or sexual relationships with inmates.
Some were subsequently lured into smuggling drugs into prisons, while others ignored prisoners possessing illicit mobile phones, allowing convicted criminals to maintain their networks from behind bars.
Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, has warned about the calculated grooming tactics inmates can use to compromise inexperienced officers.
He told The Telegraph: "What prisoners will do is that a new member of staff will start, they'll set a couple of prisoners on him or her.
"[They] start bullying them, giving them a really hard time, being a bit crazy with them, and then some very charming person will come along and say, 'Leave them alone. How dare you speak to her like that. Don't worry, love, you're with me'."
Isabelle Dale, a 23-year-old officer at HMP Coldingley in Surrey, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after having relationships with two inmates and conspiring to smuggle drug-soaked envelopes into the facility.
Her trial heard she had sex with convicted robber Shahid Sharif in the prison's chapel area and professed her "undying love" to both him and fellow prisoner Connor Money.
At HMP Altcourse in Liverpool, officer Sarah Williams was sentenced to 18 months in prison over inappropriate relationships with three inmates linked to serious organised crime.
The judge said her involvement had given the men "effectively unrestricted contact with their criminal associates".
The rise in disciplinary cases has come as the prison workforce has undergone a significant demographic shift.
Roughly half of all officers are now under 40 - up from 43.6 per cent in 2019 - while 47.8 per cent of frontline staff have three years' experience or less.
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Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and Government adviser, said: "It is clearly related to poorly-selected and poorly-trained people with no life experience being thrown into jails holding sophisticated prisoners."
He pointed to chronic understaffing and inadequate supervision as factors that could make boundary violations more likely.
"If we are recruiting people to a law enforcement organisation who need additional training not to have sex with prisoners, it says much about just how unattractive the job of a prison officer has become."
The MoJ has attributed the rise partly to stronger enforcement.
A strengthened anti-corruption investigation unit and a "zero-tolerance" approach adopted by governors is said to have resulted in more cases being pursued.
"We're seeing a shift from not prosecuting as governors didn't want it in the papers to taking action," an MoJ source told The Telegraph.
Shadow Minister for Policy Renewal Neil O'Brien said the figures showed the current measures were falling short.
"It is clear the current approach is failing when guards have relationships with prisoners that compromises security and potentially enables crimes both in and outside prison," he said.
"Recruitment and development needs to be refocused on picking people who aren't at risk of this, rather than any other goals."
A spokesman for the MoJ said: “Any relationship between prisoners and members of staff is inappropriate and we don’t hesitate to take the toughest action against any staff that fall below our high standards.
“While the majority are hard-working and professional, any found guilty of inappropriate relationships with prisoners face dismissal from the service and can be sent to prison themselves.”
