Prisons near ports and airports in England and Wales are struggling to retain staff because so many are leaving for “less stressful” jobs in the Border Force.
Younger members of staff are also quitting because they do not like being without their mobile phones all day, according to senior prison officers.
Staff retention is a huge problem in the Prison Service. Nearly half of officers (47%) who left last year had been in the role for less than three years, and more than a quarter (25%) left after less than a year.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, said those in south-east England were under pressure to retain staff because of recruitment drives from the Border Force and police.
Around 10,000 people work for the Border Force, with most in frontline roles at airports and seaports across the UK and overseas. In 2020, the government said it was spending £10m to recruit about 500 more personnel in preparation for post-Brexit border controls.
Taylor said: “What we’re seeing now, particularly in places such as Kent, Surrey, Sussex, we’re seeing people being lost, or certainly under pressure from Border Force and these sorts of organisations. So jails such as Maidstone, Elmley, Swaleside and Lewes are all under pressure. You’ve got Gatwick airport nearby as well.”
Dr Radha Kothari, the lead clinical psychologist at Feltham young offender institution in west London, said many officers there were quitting for jobs with the Border Force at nearby Heathrow.
She said: “One of the things that comes up quite a lot when you talk to prison staff about why people are handing in their notices is that Border Force are offering jobs to prison officers, which are, in theory, at least, less stressful jobs. So that can be appealing when you’ve had a period of being stretched, burnt out and overworked.”
Prison officers are attractive candidates for Border Force recruiters as they have similar skills and can move within the civil service on a “level transfer”, which means candidates can move over with their existing salaries and pensions.
Starting salaries are lower in the Border Force than in prisons, with new recruits paid as little as £21,431, while the starting salary for a prison guard is more than £30,000 or over £35,000 in inner London.
A spokesperson for the ISU, the union for borders, immigration and customs, said: “Often we get prison officers who have been injured on the job, perhaps carrying out sort of physical restraint, or officers who have developed mental health issues because of the stresses of working in jails.”
She said the Border Force was recruiting very regularly because turnover was so high, with 45% of staff leaving each year.
One in four new recruits to the Prison Service leave within a year. Reasons given include lack of management support, staff shortages and antisocial hours.
But two officers who have conducted exit interviews said another reason was increasingly given: younger officers object to having to surrender their mobile phones when they clock in each day.
“They don’t like being separated from their phones,” said a veteran officer, while another had been told the same thing. “I’ve always quite enjoyed the break from my phone,” she said. “But a lot of these young kids now that we employ, they just don’t like being away from their mobile phone.”
The Ministry of Justice did not reply to questions about staff retention in the Prison Service but said: “We have committed to hiring up to 5,000 prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s.”
