SOME of the harshest criticism in the report was reserved for staff at the prison.
Trevor Horn, branch chairman of the Prison Officers Association was angered by the content and slant of the report. 'It doesn't reflect the vast majority of staff at Dartmoor and we are all being tarred with the same brush,' he said.
Mr Horn said the real problem at Dartmoor was one of under-funding which did not allow prison officers to do their jobs properly. 'We have been used by the Prison Service for the last 20 years or so, as a dumping ground for other prisons to send their most difficult inmates.' Mr Horn said staff were doing their jobs as best they could, but following the report 'morale was at rock bottom'.
Mr Horn said the report did not give staff enough credit for the good work they had done in drug rehabilitation, anger management and with sex offenders, but much of this had been reduced because of budget cuts. He said the prison had also lost many workshop buildings because of cuts in resources.
Mr Horn said the last inspectors report in 1997 stated that Dartmoor needed to be fully resourced in the future. He said that when Home Office Minister Paul Boateng had visited Dartmoor last year he came away with a 'good impression' of the prison, saying that it was clean, in good order and relations between staff and inmates were 'co-operative'.
Mr Horn said that if the comments and attitudes highlighted in the report did happen, the POA condemned them but the report did not address the real problem of staffing and funding cuts.
'Certain issues have been used to take away from the real problems we have. We feel staff cuts will be detrimental to the regime,' he said.
Mr Horn said the idea that a culture of officers bullying inmates existed was 'absolutely ridiculous'. He accepted there may be some bullying among inmates but said this problem could only be tackled with increased staffing levels.