700 fewer officers employed by West Midlands prisons

The charity behind the statistics, the Howard League for Penal Reform, is warning that the prison system is in crisis.

The organisation says its research has found that officer numbers have been cut from 1,917 to 1,180 – a drop of 38 per cent – since 2010. According to the charity there are 107 fewer officers working at Brinsford Young Offenders' Institution near Wolverhampton.

And neighbouring HMP Featherstone is having to make do with 50 fewer officers than in 2010.

This represents a drop of 45 per cent and 33 per cent respectively, with Brinsford seeing the third-highest drop in the region.

According to the figures, Stafford Prison is now staffed by 84 fewer prison officers than four years ago, a 46 per cent drop, the second highest in the region.

According to the Howard League there are a third fewer prison officers at Drake Hall women's prison in Eccleshall while

at Swinfen Hall Young Offenders' Institution near Lichfield officer numbers have been cut by 40 per cent.

In August the MoJ announced it was hiring 46 prison officers to work at both Brinsford and Featherstone prisons.

The charity's research shows that, across England and Wales, there were 14,170 officer grade staff working in prisons run by the Ministry of Justice at the end of June 2014. This is down almost 10,000 from 24,000 at the end of August 2010.

The figures include 1,375 officer posts that were lost when 15 public-sector prisons were closed during the period.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "The prison system is in crisis, and these figures reveal why. While the prison population has grown, officer numbers have been cut without any thought for the consequences."

No-one from the Ministry of Justice was available for comment.