There are almost two violent attacks every day in Norfolk's prisons, new figures show.
Violence in the county’s three jails is on the rise, with 669 violent attacks last year, compared to 332 in 2012.
Norwich prison officers were attacked 119 times in 2022, compared with 31 a decade ago, while there were 17 attacks on staff at the smaller sex offender prison HMP Bure, the second highest number since it opened in 2009.
There were 98 assaults on staff at HMP Wayland, a four-fold increase since 2012, though slightly down from 108 in 2021, Ministry of Justice figures show.
Thirteen staff assaults were classified as serious.
A Norwich prison officer suffered serious facial injuries after being attacked as a violent prisoner was being moved between wings.
After another attack saw a Wayland inmate have his sentence extended by two years for throwing a bucket of excrement over an officer - known in jail lingo as "potting".
Community, the trade union that represents many workers in privatised justice services, said assaults on officers remained “unacceptably high”, and the increase in serious attacks was “concerning”.
READ MORE: Staffing issues sees HMP Norwich facing 'alarming violence'
It comes as violence between inmates has also increased at HMP Norwich and Bure with serious attacks doubling.
There were 11 serious prisoner-on-prisoner assaults at HMP Wayland, 10 at HMP Norwich and eight at HMP Bure in 2022.
HMP Norwich also saw 700 reported incidents of inmates self-harming, with 357 at Wayland and 269 at Bure.
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said the figures were a "dire sign of the state of some of our prisons".
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"With too many people held in spaces they weren’t designed for; staff who are burnt out and leaving in droves; and people locked up for much of the day, frustration and violence are the all too familiar consequences,” she said.
"It is only when people in our prisons have purpose and hope, and staff have the space to develop relationships with those in their care, that we can avoid so much unnecessary and damaging conflict."
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