Prison staff at the Island’s three jails are unable to do their jobs properly because of job cuts.

Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan made the claim after meeting representatives of the Prison Officers’ Association who work Standford Hill, Elmley and Swaleside prisons.

The Labour MP listened to their views on the problems they face before going on a tour of Standford Hill open prison.

He said prison officers were being let down by the government as their numbers had been cut by 41% on Sheppey in the last four years, while the inmate population has grown and the number of assaults by prisoners on staff and other prisoners has gone up.

He said: “Prison officers aren’t able to do the stuff they used to, like the mandatory drug testing and searching the cells every day.

“The concern they’ve got is that their ability to rehabilitate prisoners is diminished and so prisoners will leave prison not rehabilitated and will re-offend.”

The prison crisis, he claimed, was having a knock-on effect, leading to the “wrong sort” of prisoners being sent to open prisons including high-profile absconders like Michael ‘Skull Cracker’ Wheatley. This brought the system into disrepute.

Mr Khan said: “We’ve got three really good prisons here with staff working really hard. Because of the government’s policy, though, they’re all in crisis.

“Elmley has 30 vacancies, Swaleside has more than 40.

“The reason people don’t want to join the prison service and work in these prisons is because it’s not safe. They speak to prison officers who tell them how bad it is.”

He added: “A lot of them are spending all their time simply locking and unlocking, not doing the work they need to do with prisoners.

“I’ve been told in this week alone because of staff shortages prison officers couldn’t take prisoners from their cell to their place of work inside the prison. In those sorts of situations and circumstances why would you want to join a prison service and risk your personal safety?”

He said under a Labour government prisons would have the resources and investment to rehabilitate prisoners and therefore reduce the economic cost of re-offending.

Last week we reported that justice secretary Chris Grayling visited HMP Standford Hill, and said he was confident of filling the staff gaps.