Inmate backs prison staff over ‘damaging new English regime’

Thursday 10th June 2010, 1:00PM BST.

Animosity and resentment will be rife if English guidelines are imposed at the prison, says an inmate. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0827531)

IF GUERNSEY PRISON follows English guidelines, long established officer/prisoner working relationships will be destroyed and replaced by animosity and resentment, an inmate has claimed.

In a letter to the Guernsey Press, Sonny Duncombe raised his concerns about changes.

The prison wants to implement efficiency savings as soon as possible following a review of the service but officers voted against that and a 1.8% pay rise in March without knowing, they claim, what changes in working practices they were being asked to accept.

The matter has gone to an industrial tribunal and prison sources have since told the Guernsey Press that it is battling high staff turnover and sickness.