Prison officers should be armed with lethal weapons to crack down on Islamist terrorists, Tories say

Prison officers should beryllium equipped with lethal weapons to ace down connected Islamist terrorists successful jail, the shadiness justness caput has said.

Highly trained teams should besides beryllium equipped with tasers, stun grenades and baton rounds to tackle unsafe criminals successful high-security jails, Robert Jenrick said.

The program is taken from a bid of recommendations by counter-extremism adept and erstwhile situation politician Ian Acheson.

It comes aft a situation serviceman astatine high-security situation Long Lartin successful Worcestershire was stabbed connected Friday greeting with a limb Sky News understands was brought successful from extracurricular the prison.

It besides follows respective attacks connected situation officers successful jails.

In April this year, the Manchester Arena weaponry plotter, Hashem Abedi, allegedly assaulted situation staff by throwing blistery lipid connected them and past launching a stabbing attack, injuring 3 officers.

At Belmarsh prison, Southport slayer Axel Rudakubana has been accused of throwing boiling h2o implicit an serviceman done the hatch successful his compartment doorway earlier this month.

Mr Jenrick said: "Islamist gangs and convulsive prisoners successful our jails are retired of control.

It's a nationalist information emergency, but the authorities is dithering. If they don't enactment soon, determination is simply a precise existent hazard that a situation serviceman is kidnapped oregon murdered successful the enactment of duty, oregon that a violent onslaught is directed from wrong prison."

He said helium commissioned Mr Acheson to behaviour a accelerated reappraisal into measures the authorities could adopt.

The measures see removing each extremist Islamist imams moving successful prisons, instantly rolling retired high-collar stab vests to frontline officers, and mandating the quarterly merchandise of information connected spiritual conversions successful situation and faith-based incidents.

It besides recommended legislating to overturn the De Silva ruling to portion backmost judicial interference successful operational decisions by governors to isolate extremists.

Mr Jenrick added: "We person to halt pussy-footing astir Islamist extremists and convulsive offenders successful jails.

"That means arming specializer situation serviceman teams with tasers and stun grenades, arsenic good arsenic giving them entree to lethal weapons successful exceptional circumstances.

"If situation governors can't easy support violent influencers and radicalising inmates isolated from the mainstream prisoners they target, past we don't power our prisons - they do. We indispensable instrumentality backmost power and reconstruct bid by giving officers the powers and extortion they need."

Mr Acheson said: "Too often what goes incorrect down the walls of our precocious information jails passes unnoticed, arsenic does the bravery of the men and women successful azygous who woody each time with terrorists and different highly unsafe offenders.

"Robert Jenrick is close - the menace to serviceman information is present intolerable and indispensable beryllium met decisively by the government.

"The equilibrium wrong excessively galore of our prisons has shifted distant from power by the authorities to specified containment and the terms is soaring levels of unit assaults and wrecked rehabilitation. Broken officers can't assistance hole breached radical - oregon support the nationalist from convulsive extremism."

A Ministry of Justice root said: "The authorities considers the instauration of lethal weapons into prisons would enactment situation officers astatine greater risk."

They added: "The past authorities added conscionable 500 cells to our situation estate, and near our jails successful full crisis. In 14 years, they closed 1,600 cells successful the high-security estate, unit assaults soared, and experienced officers near successful droves. Now the arsonists are pretending to beryllium firefighters.

"This authorities is cleaning up the messiness the past authorities near behind. We are gathering caller prisons, with 2,400 caller cells opened since we took office. And we instrumentality a zero-tolerance attack to unit and extremism inside."