Inspectors warn of rising assaults as inmates spend longer locked in cells with little rehabilitation

VIOLENCE across Welsh prisons has reached crisis levels, with assaults between prisoners and attacks on staff soaring amid chronic staff shortages, rampant drug use and long lock-up hours.

A growing body of evidence, including Ministry of Justice data, inspection findings and independent research, paints a picture of a prison system buckling under pressure. In some institutions, assaults have more than doubled in five years, with serious injuries becoming alarmingly routine.

At HMP Cardiff, assaults on staff rose from 20 in 2022/23 to 52 last year – a 160 per cent increase. The prison also recorded 168 prisoner-on-prisoner attacks, up 42 per cent in five years. Across Wales, the picture is much the same, as overcrowding, poor rehabilitation and undertrained officers drive a spiral of violence and despair.

A system on the brink

Figures show that prisoner-on-prisoner assaults across Welsh prisons rose 80 per cent in 2023, while assaults on staff rose 69 per cent. Self-harm incidents are up more than half, and deaths in custody have risen steeply, particularly in prisons where drug use is rife.

The causes are interlinked: inexperience, understaffing, mental health decline, drugs, debt and boredom. Overcrowded jails and endless hours behind locked doors are fuelling frustration and aggression.

A senior officer told The Herald: “When a prisoner owes money for drugs, it doesn’t just disappear – it ends in a beating, a stabbing, or worse. The gangs run the wings because there aren’t enough experienced officers to control them.”

Drugs, debt and retribution

Synthetic drugs such as Spice are flooding prisons across Wales. Drones and corrupt smuggling routes are feeding a thriving black market, and prisoners are racking up debts they cannot pay. Violence is often the result.

At HMP Parc in Bridgend, inspectors found that 57 per cent of prisoners said it was easy to get drugs. In one year there were nearly 900 drug finds, and the number of drug-related deaths rose dramatically. Prisoners described days locked up for 21 hours, with no meaningful activity and little food.

Drugs create their own power structures inside the walls. Those who control supply control the prison, while those in debt are left vulnerable to beatings, extortion and retribution.

Parc Prison’s shocking decline

Once considered one of the UK’s better-run prisons, Parc has become a byword for crisis. Inspectors recorded 722 assaults in the 12 months before their 2025 visit – 110 of them serious – representing a 60 per cent rise since the previous inspection.

Seventeen inmates died there in one year, 12 of them in just six months. Violence, drugs and self-harm have soared. The inspection concluded that Parc had “declined significantly” and was now “too violent, too drug-ridden and too unstable.”

The prison is operated by private firm G4S, and critics say profit motives have made matters worse. Staff turnover is high, morale is low, and rehabilitation programmes have withered. Former prisoners describe a chaotic regime: “You’re either locked up, off your head, or fighting over debt. The staff just shut the doors and hope it blows over.”

Cardiff: overcrowding and rising assaults

Cardiff, a local Victorian prison in the Adamsdown area, has not escaped the violence. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that prisoner-on-prisoner assaults have risen by 42 per cent in five years, reaching 168 in 2024/25.

Assaults on staff more than doubled between 2022/23 and 2024/25, from 20 to 52 – a 160 per cent increase.

The most recent inspection found that almost two-thirds of prisoners were sharing single cells, with many locked up for long periods. Nearly half said drugs were easy to get, and self-harm incidents rose by a third in 2023 alone.

Despite strong leadership and generally good relationships between staff and prisoners, the report described a “pressured and overcrowded” establishment. Cardiff had ten suicides since 2019 and remains among the most stretched prisons in Wales.

Patrick Mallon, a solicitor at JF Law, said: “The alarming year-on-year rise in assaults in UK prisons is a stark reflection of a system under immense strain. With populations growing and so many prisons officially overcrowded, the Ministry of Justice is facing a crisis where violence becomes increasingly common.”

Swansea: safer but under strain

HMP Swansea remains an exception – for now. The latest inspection found just 34 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in a year, and violence against staff described as “among the lowest of all reception prisons.”

However, inspectors warned that the prison’s relative calm depended on stable staffing and leadership. Work and education spaces were limited, leaving many prisoners idle. With overcrowding rising elsewhere, there are fears Swansea could follow the same pattern as Parc and Cardiff if staffing levels fall.

Overcrowding and long lock-ups

The Welsh prison population has grown steadily for three decades, mirroring the national trend. Across England and Wales there are now more than 88,000 inmates – double the number held in 1994 – yet the number of uniformed officers has barely increased.

Many prisoners spend more than 20 hours a day locked in their cells. With little access to work, training or exercise, frustration boils over. In an already volatile environment, small disputes escalate into violence.

Long hours alone also take a toll on mental health. Self-harm incidents across Wales rose 53 per cent in 2023, and inspectors report growing numbers of prisoners on suicide prevention measures.

Private profit and public cost

Campaigners argue that the private operation of Parc has exposed the risks of running prisons for profit. With cost pressures and high staff turnover, safety and rehabilitation often fall by the wayside.

A spokesperson for the Prison Officers’ Association said: “You can’t run safe prisons on minimum wage and profit margins. Officers are undertrained, overworked and terrified. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

A broken duty of care

Under law, prison authorities have a duty of care to protect those in custody and to provide a safe working environment for staff. Where that duty is breached, both prisoners and officers have the right to seek compensation for physical or psychological harm.

But campaigners say litigation should not be the only route to accountability. The system itself needs reform.

Legal Expert’s analysis points out that for every ten extra prisoners per thousand, assaults on staff rise by 1.5 and prisoner-on-prisoner assaults by one. The conclusion is stark: violence is built into overcrowding.

Calls for reform

Experts and unions are united in calling for reform. They say the government’s £40 million “Plan for Change,” which promises 14,000 new prison places by 2031, will not be enough without investment in staff training, rehabilitation and mental health care.

Proposed solutions include better pay and retention schemes for officers, more purposeful activity for inmates, and tighter control of contraband. Independent monitoring boards have also urged greater transparency and tougher oversight of private contracts.

The human cost

Behind the statistics are broken people – inmates and officers alike. Many of those injured will never fully recover, and each death in custody represents a failure of care.

Families of those who died at Parc and Cardiff say they were failed by a system that could not keep their loved ones safe. Officers speak of colleagues assaulted or traumatised beyond repair.

Until the root causes – drugs, debt, understaffing and neglect – are tackled head-on, violence will continue to define life inside Welsh prisons. The cost is measured not only in bruises and broken bones, but in trust, safety and human dignity.