Hertfordshire’s Mount Prison fully staffed, as more prison officers recruited across England and Wales

It comes as the number of frontline prison officers has reached the highest level in over a decade.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice and the HM Prison and Probation Service show there were 248 full-time equivalent prison officers working at The Mount Prison as of March 31.

This meant the prison exceeded its target of 226 officers in post.

Staff levels were up 12 per cent from the end of December, when the prison was short-staffed and missed the target by five officers.

Across England and Wales, 23,185 full-time equivalent prison officers were in post as of March, exceeding the target of 22,971. This was also the highest number in over a decade.

During the last quarter of 2023, prisons were short of 165 officers, while this figure was 1,180 in March of the same year.

Separate figures show while prisons were still short-staffed in winter, 7,086 assault incidents took place, including 2,517 on staff members.

Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “People in prison should be engaged in exercise, education, employment and training, which overstretched, understaffed jails are unable to provide.

“Instead, people are warehoused in unsafe conditions for hours on end with nothing to do, with suicides and assaults becoming increasingly common.”

He said that the government plans to expand the prison population to almost 114,800 by 2028 were ‘particularly concerning’.

“To address the dire experiences of people at risk of suicide and self-harm, the Government must commit to investing in staffing and significant reductions in the prison population,” he added.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Our figures show the number of frontline prison officers has reached the highest level in over a decade, with 1,396 more officers in place compared to last year.

They added boosting pay to more than £30,000 and the recruitment campaign was working while £100 million had been invested into additional security measures, including body-worn cameras and PAVA spray - a synthetic pepper spray.