The prison crisis is a national crisis. Private prisons only a small part of the story which is fundamentally of a huge budget cuts (because MoJ budget unprotected from austerity) = staff reductions = rise in violence 
I have visited prisons quite a bit over the past years and spoken to many officers and governors. They are generally good people given an impossible task. In the past couple of years they have seemed resigned to continuing deterioration
I remember one governor telling me that nobody realised but they had to get rid of all of their drug sniffer dogs as they couldn’t afford to keep them. So drugs flooding the prison. It’s a scandal and it’s down to rapidly cutting a budget by 20% without considering the effect
If people think prison officers are hard nuts or violent bullies like on TV that’s not my experience. To work in a prison you have to be pretty sensitive as you are looking after a complex group of people with major drug and mental health issues. The staff are victims too here
I remember one governor saying to me at a prison inquest (investigation into a suicide):
Him: “Do you do lots of these?”
Me: “Yes quite a lot”
Him: “Well it’s a growth industry with everything that’s going on in the estate...”
Him: “Do you do lots of these?”
Me: “Yes quite a lot”
Him: “Well it’s a growth industry with everything that’s going on in the estate...”
Another common theme in speaking to officers and governors. Because of huge staff reductions, prisons now staffed by many young, inexperienced or ‘officer support grade’ staff (they are like healthcare assistants in hospitals) - inexperience is lethal in the prison context
They have no idea what to do in crises because they are inexperienced. And even though govt now bringing in new staff (because it was way beyond crisis point) they can’t get back the experience as the best officers left with redundancy packages and don’t want to come back
