Prisoners healthcare takes priority over safety of prison officers say lawyers
- High Court ruling controversy today
- Victim of sawn-off shotgun escape ‘devastated’ at lack of support for prison officers
- Public safety over-ridden by opinion of prison doctor to call ambulance with minimal assessment
Press release
4th April 2012
Prisoners healthcare takes priority over safety of prison officers say lawyers
Legal experts say more emphasis needs to be put on the safety of prison officers following a High Court judgement today.
Three prison officers were injured after a violent following an incident where a career criminal faked illness in order to escape.
The incident happened at Wormwood Scrubs in January 2007 when convicted criminal Joe Farnan, who had already escaped from HMP Stanford fifteen months earlier and undertaken a dummy run to hospital faked an illness in order to gain access to Hammersmith Hospital.
He was found lying on the floor in his cell during lunch time lock down. When the prison doctor attended he immediately called for an ambulance without carrying out the usual medical checks. Forty minutes later the ambulance containing Farnan, three prison officers and 2 paramedics arrived at the hospital. It was then that an armed man forced his way in the back of the vehicle and threatened to “blow the heads off” the officers unless they released the prisoner. The pair then escaped to freedom. It later emerged that information that he was likely to escape had not been disseminated by security staff until it was too late.
The officers were traumatised as a result of this incident. An incident which they argued the Prison Service could have and should have avoided and that they should not be been exposed to this risk in the first place.
The Judge accepted the evidence of the Prison Services’ expert doctor who said that the prison doctor had acted appropriately in immediately calling an ambulance.
Victoria Price, partner at law firm Price & Slater & specialist in claims for prison officers, represented one of the prison officers in the case, who blames her post-traumatic stress disorder on failings in the system, following her ordeal in 2007:
“The message that this case sends out is worrying. The implication is that the Prison security services protocols can be subverted by feigned illness. The Judge accepted that security considerations could be over ruled in circumstances where the medical officer believes that there is risk to the prisoner’s health.
“This judgment will be met with concern by serving prison officers. They already do a dangerous job. This decision will leave them feeling that they have little protection when things go wrong. What is most worrying is that despite the fact that the prisoner had nothing wrong with him, had done a dummy run and an escape attempt was expected, the Prison Service was powerless to protect the public or my client. My client is devastated that she has lost her career and her quality of life. She feels badly let down.”
For the full High Court judgement announced today see http://www.priceandslater.co.uk/latest_news/judgement-in-prison-officer-case.html
Ends
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