Taxpayers pay out £66k compensation to prison inmates

PRISONERS injured at Birmingham Prison cost taxpayers more than £66,000 in four years, figures reveal.

- NAOMI DESOUZA

Almost half of the compensation was paid out in 2023, when more than £32,200 worth of claims were made.

Claims were made for anything from 'bunk bed injuries' to food contamination.

The Winson Green prison was given a good report by chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor in February 2023, when he said he was “delighted” to find HMP Birmingham “much safer and more decent” after a 2018 inspection found the prison blighted by drugs, staff corruption and squalor.

But Mr Taylor also observed: “Most inmates were unemployed and there were not enough spaces in education, training or work, which meant that many were spending up to 22.5 hours a day locked behind their doors.