Prisoners have been taking bounties said to include cash and vapes to carry out attacks at high security Frankland jail (Picture: Getty)

A catalogue of violence at high security HMP Frankland jail suggests prisoners are taking bounties to carry out assaults on other inmates.  

One inmate who carried out an attack is described as a ‘self-confessed racist’ who has a ‘dependency on vapes’ which he needed to fund.  

Another entry in the newly disclosed list of 150 assaults at the Category A men’s jail says that a prisoner claimed there was a £10,000 bounty on his head because he had ‘grassed’ on someone.

A similar claim is made in another report where a prisoner involved in a brawl told staff an inmate ‘had put money on his head’. 

The extensive dataset obtained by Metro.co.uk — which shows the 12 months up to April 30 this year — led to fresh warnings from campaigners that jails have become unsafe and dangerous environments.  

Dozens of other violent attacks at the jail in Durham are also included in the heavily redacted document — including one where the perpetrator used two steel bars to attack staff who entered his cell. 

Grahame Morris MP, a member of a parliamentary group representing justice system workers, whose constituency is nearby Easington, County Durham, warned that the violence put lives in danger.

Staff taking part in a strike over pay outside HMP Frankland prison in Brasside, Durham (Picture: Owen Humphreys/PA)

He said: ‘Prison violence at HMP Frankland has become an all too familiar occurrence and has distressingly been normalised within our prison system.

‘In such an unsafe and hazardous environment, the prospects of education and rehabilitation of prisoners are greatly hindered, if not altogether impossible. The government’s apparent inability to assert control over our prisons not only endangers the lives of both inmates and prison officers but also undermines the very foundation of our criminal justice system. 

‘It is incumbent upon this government to set out a robust and effective strategy to eradicate prison violence. Failing to tackle the cycle of violence within our prison walls has grave consequences for public safety upon the release of prisoners who see violence as a normal part of everyday life.’ 

Mary Kelly Foy, MP for the City of Durham, warned that the catalogue of assaults represents a wider deterioration of conditions in prisons.

‘This is a snapshot of the danger and violence that prison staff face on the landings,’ she told Metro.co.uk.

A series of attacks on inmates and staff took place at HMP Frankland over a 12-month period (Picture: David Goddard/Getty Images)

‘The government has talked tough on crime for 13 years, but ministers have never prioritised our criminal justice system. Everyday staff are put at risk working in a crumbling prison estate while being underpaid, under-resourced and under-appreciated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). It’s dangerous for workers, prisoners and, in the long run, the public.’ 

Four of the incident logs make reference to prisoners carrying out attacks in return for some form of payment.  

On January 29 this year, one inmate handed staff a note requesting to be moved off his wing, saying he was under threat from a person ‘who he claimed had put a £10,000 bounty on his head as there was a rumour he had grassed on him’. The log reads: ‘He has been moved to the [redacted] for today with the possibility of moving him tomorrow depending on the outcome of the risk assessment.’ 

Prison guards have found themselves in the firing line amid violence that has broken out in prisons across England and Wales (File image from Getty)

Two weeks earlier, another prisoner said that an inmate ‘had put money’ on his head. He gave his version of events after a fight which he claimed started when the assailant ‘entered his cell and started hitting him with something wrapped in cloth’, according to the entry.

The following month, one of more than 11 assaults carried out by throwing liquid — often containing urine or faecal matter — was reported by staff.

The perpetrator is described as a ‘self-confessed racist’ who has ‘taken up contracts’ in the past to assault an individual or group whose name has been redacted. He carried out the attack by ‘throwing liquid’ at the victim for ‘reasons unknown’, according to the log. 

The entry reads: ‘[Redacted] has a high level of dependency on vapes and will carry out such acts for payment in this manner.

‘This is considered the reason for the assault.’  

Another report from January 1 this year says a victim was squirted with an ‘unknown liquid’ from a plastic honey bottle.

Intelligence received by staff suggested that the perpetrator ‘was paid by [redacted] to carry out the assault’. 

Dozens of violent attacks and fights are also shown in the reports obtained by Metro.co.uk. In one, on April 11 last year, a prisoner attacked his victim by ‘slashing him on the side of his face’ and ‘causing serious injury’.

The weapon was retrieved and the culprit was downgraded to a ‘basic’ regime, the log shows. Another attack the following July involved the assailant entering a cell and assaulting his target by ‘punching him and trying to gouge his eye out’. The victim was advised to apply a cold compress to his eye but refused treatment.  

On January 7 this year, an inmate entered a cell and attacked the occupant with an improvised weapon made from a pan handle and a hobby blade intended as a craft knife or paper cutter. The victim needed hospital treatment for cuts to his face and left eye.

Although the logs have been redacted to hide details showing whether prison officers or inmates were victims, it is clear staff have been targeted on more than one occasion.  

Grahame Morris MP said the outbreaks of violence at Frankland are part of a familiar pattern of violence at jails (Picture: Jess Hurd)

On September 14 last year, a prison officer was taking part in a ‘planned removal’ of an inmate from a cell when the occupant assaulted him with a chair leg. The member of staff was holding a shield at the time.

In another incident, a prisoner struck out at officers with two steel bars made from his cell window as he resisted their attempt to remove him from the room so damage he had caused could be repaired.

They used a shield to protect themselves, with one being struck in on the fingers ‘but receiving no injuries’ during the incident on March 17 this year, according to the log.  

Eleven assaults involved inmates throwing or spraying human waste matter onto other people to humiliate them or issue a warning.

In one such attack last December an inmate was ‘potted’ through his cell window after a bottle containing urine and faeces was passed to the assailant in an exercise yard, a report states. 

Staff were also victims of the assaults, with two being hit as they walked past a cell. The assailant squirted what was believed to be urine and faeces via a cell vent on August 25 last year. They were sent off duty to ‘get cleaned up and checked’, the log states. 

Prisoners need more support to ensure they are rehabilitated, commentators say (Picture: File image by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Frankland houses some of the UK’s most notorious prisoners including Wayne Couzens, who is serving a whole life term for the abduction, murder and rape of Sarah Everard, and serial killer Levi Bellfield, who is serving two whole life orders for three murders and an attempted murder.

Bellfield, 55, is to be allowed to marry behind bars after officials said earlier this month there was no way to block the move.  

The incidents include 105 which have been verified and 45 which are unsubstantiated, the MoJ said in notes accompanying the disclosure. Assaults are defined as physical or verbal attacks in the dataset. 

Figures provided separately by the government show that assaults across the prison estate in England and Wales are down by 30% on 2019.

A £100 million investment in security has included equipping officers with PAVA incapacitant spray, police-style restraints, bodyworn cameras and X-ray body scanners to detect contraband. The funding was announced in 2019 as ‘part of a crackdown on crime behind bars’. 

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into force in June 2022, has increased the maximum penalty for assaulting prison officers to up to two years’ imprisonment. The measures are part of the Prison Service’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach to violence in jails.

A spokesperson said: ‘We do not tolerate assaults in prisons and our £100m security investment is clamping down on the weapons, drugs, and mobile phones that fuel violence behind bars.’ 

MORE : MP condemns government over ‘shocking’ violence at maximum security jail

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One inmate at HMP Frankland told staff a £10,000 bounty had been put on his head for ‘grassing’.