Press Release
Prison Officers Need a Safe Place to Work
The Personal Injury Department at HPW has advised several prison officers from Wormwood Scrubs, not far from our offices. Our biggest ever prison injury claim won more than £500,000 for an officer in the Segregation Unit described as ‘exemplary’ by his superiors, including a governor. Our client loved his job and prided himself on being able to defuse situations where angry prisoners might lash out – sometimes, it was said in court, simply because they were unable to get the breakfast cereal that they wanted.
An armed robber with a long history of violence including 14 assaults or attempted assaults on prison officers refused to strip his bed so that routine searches for drugs and contraband could take place. Our client had no knowledge of the prisoner’s past. He was confident enough to enter the cell with other officers and tell the prisoner to put his hands on the wall. The officer offered to strip the bedding himself. Within a few seconds, the powerful young man had injured 2 officers, including our client, who was punched squarely in the eye and knocked to the floor.
The prisoner was quickly pinned down with the use of a stave and reinforcements. Our client never worked in the Prison Service again, though, because the damage to his eye put him below the eyesight standard required. In the years that followed, he lost his four-bedroom tied accommodation and could only afford a property a long way from London. His wife became the main breadwinner and she had a long and expensive commute to central London. Our client missed his colleagues and the satisfaction he got from dealing with difficult prisoners, which had earned his team a Butler Trust Award presented by Princess Anne. All he had was a dog and some short-term driving jobs. He began to despair about his future.
The Prison Service took the view that it was up to individual prison officers to find out about an inmate’s history and to make their own judgments about whether or not it was safe to enter a cell, and whether they needed riot gear or reinforcements.
After a 4-day trial at The Royal Courts of Justice, the judge found the Prison Service negligent, and the losses that caused: the job our client loved, and a good future. With no formal qualifications and no longer fit for any uniformed service, his prospects of pensionable employment with a chance of advancement are limited. A professional employment report helped in the quantification of losses.
After the celebrations and holidays with his family, who had supported him throughout his ordeal, our client has used his half million pounds to relocate and to retrain, and is looking forward to the future.
The Prison Service, for its part, has issued clear guidance to prisons about history sheets so that prison officers, always on their guard by the nature of their job, will have advance warning when a particularly hard case turns up on their wing.
This very worthwhile claim had been turned down by the Prison Officers Association prior to our involvement on the basis that it had no reasonable chance of success. We took a chance on the case, and right up until judgment was finally handed down, we did not know if we would be paid at all for the years of hard work and mountains of documents produced.
HPW is willing to take on difficult cases if we think they have a good chance of success, and this was one that ended in a well-earned drink for the lawyers, and for the student intern who helped on the case.
