19 Female Staff Dismissed Over Relationships With Male Prisoners

London: Nineteen female prison staff have been dismissed over a four-year period for having inappropriate relationships with male prisoners, the Prison Service has disclosed. The women lost their jobs at male jails in England and Wales between 2015 and 2019. During the same period, seven male staff members were dismissed for inappropriate relationships with prisoners at female jails. Whilst the Ministry of Justice publishes annual figures for the number of staff who lose their jobs for various reasons, including inappropriate relationships, the totals are not usually broken down by the gender of the staff responsible. Between January 2015 and March 2019, a total of 32 members of prison staff were dismissed over inappropriate relationships with prisoners or ex-prisoners. Besides the 19 women at male jails and the seven men at female jails, the remaining six cases involved same-sex relationships. The Ministry of Justice did not disclose whether these occurred at male or female jails. A spokesman said of the figures: “The vast majority of prison officers and other staff carry out their duties to the high standards the public rightly expect, but the small minority who fall short of those standards are held to account. Allegations of inappropriate behaviour, though rare, are taken extremely seriously and are immediately investigated irrespective of their gender. We do not hesitate to take action where there is evidence of misconduct.”

Source:  Inside Time