FEARS have been expressed for the safety of the public, prison staff and inmates themselves, if the proposed down-grading of Dartmoor Prison were to be a cosmetic exercise designed to save money.

Martin Narey, the Director General of the Prison Service, visited Dartmoor last Thursday. He announced that it was 'very likely' to be re-designated as a low security prison — category C.

Dartmoor currently houses around 660 inmates. 40 per cent — some 260 men — are designated medium high security — category B, for whom 'escape must be made very difficult'.

Prison officers and West Devon MP John Burnett are worried that many of those men will have their security designation down-graded so they can remain in Dartmoor.

They will then be guarded by fewer than two thirds the number of current officers and will be free to spend time in the local community.

Dartmoor governor John Lawrence denied there would be any deliberate mass down-grading of prisoners.

But John Masterton, vice chairman of the Dartmoor Prison Officers' Association, said: 'It will be a paper exercise — everybody will be made a Cat C and we'll have to deal with them with far fewer staff.

'It's how we work the landings at night with more than 600 inmates that concerns us — are we going to be in fear of our lives every morning when we open up?'

Mr Burnett visited the prison on Monday. He said: 'If the Government is intent on wrongly categorising prisoners in order to diminish the numbers of staff and save money, it would be totally unacceptable in terms of the safety of the public, staff and the prisoners themselves.

'It all comes down to whether it is a genuine or cosmetic re-categorisation — it could be disastrous. I will do all in my power to stop this happening.'

Mr Lawrence said the security status of prisoners was regularly reviewed and many were down-graded anyway as their sentence progressed.

Others would be transferred to other Cat B prisons, he said, but they hoped to avoid a 'mass bussing out of prisoners'.

'There will be no deliberate mass down-grading of Category B prisoners to keep them at Dartmoor — that would be dishonest,' he said.