Prison officers have threatened to "take matters into their own hands" and stage direct action over the growing safety crisis in English and Welsh jails, after officers from four police forces were called in to help regain control of Bedford prison on Sunday night.
At least 200 inmates rioted in protest over living standards, in the latest incident to highlight the concerns of prison staff, many of whom fear for their personal safety.
Video filmed on illicit mobile phones smuggled in by prisoners and posted to Facebook and YouTube showed prisoners shouting and celebrating on the prison landings amid debris and chaos. Two prisoners suffered minor injuries but no staff were hurt.
As many as 60 prisoners were removed from the jail on Monday morning, with tough penalties and increased sentences promised for the rioters. Bedfordshire police continue to investigate and have arrested three men, aged 26, 37, and 39, under the Prison Security Act.
A damning report from the prisons inspectorate in September said it was easier for some inmates at Bedford to get drugs than it was to get clothes or bedsheets.
The security problem in prisons was further laid bare by the escape of two prisoners from HMP Pentonville in London on Monday.
And unless it gets assurances on safety and security in the next few days, the Prison Officers' Association (POA) is planning to stage direct action at prisons as early as next week – even though it is technically banned from staging strikes.
"The crisis we have in our prisons is due to the underfunding and cuts that this government has approved over the last five years," Steve Gillan, the general secretary of the POA, told BuzzFeed News.
"Since the coalition government came in in 2010 we've seen a decline in budgets in the prison service of some £900 million. They made 8,000 uniformed staff redundant and now we're supposed to be doing cartwheels because [justice secretary] Liz Truss announces an increase of 2,500 officers by 2018."
The union is locked in negotiations with the prisons service this week over immediate safety concerns and has set a deadline of this Friday for a deal to be done – or the POA will consider some form of direct action.
Gillan said there had been "good, constructive dialogue" between the two sides, but added that the union's national executive would have to rubber-stamp any agreement or choose to reject it.
Last week, the POA called off planned meetings outside prisons at the last minute after Truss, who took over the brief from Michael Gove in July, agreed to meet with the union's management to discuss concerns.
The union had planned to hold the emergency meetings to tell staff to "retreat to a place of safety" – effectively an unofficial walkout – if prison management imposed unsafe working conditions, mainly related to a lack of staff to control the prison population.
"We've given them until 11 November to come up with a deal that protects prisoners and staff," said Gillan. "One of the issues I'm hearing at Bedford yesterday was that prison officers warned there was going to be unrest in the jail that day, and said there should be a controlled unlock – they warned that if they just let them out to play pool, something was going to happen.
"And that security intelligence was ignored and the governor ordered the staff to unlock. Just 15 minutes later, there was a riot situation and the staff had to withdraw for their own safety and regroup."
BuzzFeed News has contacted the Ministry of Justice in regards to this allegation, and was awaiting response at the time of publication.
"Our members feel they are being ignored," Gillan added. "We had to threaten direct action last week before the secretary of state would meet us and that's deplorable. She's new to the post and quite frankly she doesn't know what she's doing as yet.
"We need the very basic things to be done on health and safety for officers and prisoners – we cannot go on in the manner that we have been. We're quite clear: If government ignore us and the employer ignores us then we'll have to take matters into our own hands and give direction to our members from next week onwards."
Penal reform campaigners said the riot, which lasted from around 5pm to 11pm and is just the latest in a string of similar incidents across England and Wales this year, is the inevitable result of underfunding and a shortage of staff.
Last week, Lewes prison suffered similar unrest as prisoners caused serious damage, with the POA claiming that there were only four staff to control an entire wing.
Staff at the Sodexo-run Northumberland prison called in specialist reinforcements in September after it was claimed prisoners threatened staff with makeshift weapons.
A court heard in April that a group of six teenagers incarcerated at Hindley youth offenders' institute caused £13,500 of damage, poured boiling water on prison officers, and pelted them with missiles.
In May, a prisoner at HMP Humber in East Yorkshire claimed staff were taken hostage by prisoners, prompting a response from the emergency services.
In June, almost 140 prisoners had to be moved after rioting at Erlestoke prison in Wiltshire, while 120 prisoners at HMP Stocken in Rutland were moved and a prison officer was treated for cuts to his face after prisoners rioted and set fire to bins the same month.
Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "Less than two months after Bedford was described by the chief inspector of prisons as an ‘abject failure’, we see shocking evidence of this in the riot that broke out last night.
“Bedford is unsafe, grossly overcrowded, and understaffed. Prisoners can obtain drugs easily but cannot get essentials such as clothes and sheets. Things are now so bad that prisoners effectively took matters into their own hands and briefly took the prison over.
“Sadly these conditions are replicated in prisons up and down the country. The government has pledged more resources, but it remains to be seen how quickly things can improve on the prison landings. The levels of deaths and violence are such that it will take more than just bodies in uniform to turn things around.
“We also need to take a hard look at who we are sending to prison and what the government can do to better manage the numbers of prisoners being held in these failing institutions.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said in a statement: “Specially trained prison officers and staff from the emergency services have successfully resolved an incident involving a number of prisoners at HMP Bedford.
“An investigation into this incident will take place. We are absolutely clear that prisoners who behave in this way will be punished and could spend significantly longer behind bars.”