Prison staff given corruption training following guards’ ‘affairs’
Hundreds of staff at a men’s jail branded ‘Britain’s cushiest’ have received anti-corruption training in the last 18 months and security has been boosted to stop the smuggling of illicit items inside.
Three young women guards at Berwyn Prison, Wrexham, have been jailed in the last few years after starting relationships with inmates.
Last month a prison officer wept as she was jailed for eight months. Jennifer Gavan, 27, of Llay, Wrexham, pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office between April and July 2020. She was accused of entering into an inappropriate relationship with prisoner Alex Coxon, now 25, accepting £150 to bring a mobile phone into the jail and communicating with him via a phone.
In 2019 a guard who had a fling with a “dangerous” inmate was locked up for 12 months. Numerous phone calls, some sexually explicit, took place between criminology and psychology graduate Ayshea Gunn, 27, and Khuram Razaq, 29. He was an inmate at Berwyn serving twelve years for conspiracy to rob. She smuggled in a pair of knickers for him inside her bra.
Mold Crown court heard that in Gunn’s bedroom were snaps of the pair kissing and hugging, some mobile phone pictures taken in his cell.
The same year prison officer Emily Watson, 26, was jailed after performing a sex act on an inmate in his cell on Christmas Day.
A Prison Service spokesman said: “The overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and dedicated and we will not hesitate to punish those who break the rules. Over 500 members of staff at HMP Berwyn have undertaken corruption prevention training in the last 18 months and our enhanced security is protecting the prison against attempts to smuggle illicit items inside.”
The Prison Service said the most recent independent inspection into HMP Berwyn found security arrangements were good.
Jail staff are being vetted every ten years and the service is piloting social media checks for some “higher risk” roles such as prison officers.
Enhanced gate security at HMP Berwyn was protecting the jail against any staff who might attempt to smuggle illicit items behind bars.
At Berwyn cells are called rooms and prisoners are referred to as men.
The prison provides inmates with laptops, with a restricted internal internet, and telephones in their individual rooms. But it was once described by a former inmate as being “run like a youth club.”
