This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

﻿A prison officer is “lucky to be alive” after having his throat cut by an inmate.

The man, said to have been new to the job, was taken to hospital after the attack on Sunday morning at HMP Nottingham.

The national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, Mark Fairhurst, said the officer received 17 stitches after being attacked with a razor in an “unprovoked attack”.

“Apparently, as soon as his door was unlocked this morning, he attacked the first officer he saw with a razor blade,” Fairhurst said.

“He has cut his neck. The officer has gone to hospital and received 17 stitches. At the hospital, staff said he’s lucky to be alive as it was very close to the main artery on his neck.”

Fairhurst also said that the officer was a new member of staff still on his probationary period.

A Prison Service spokeswoman said on Sunday: “A prison officer received hospital treatment after an incident at HMP Nottingham this morning.

“We do not tolerate violence against our hardworking officers, which is why we introduced the Assaults on Emergency Workers Act, which ensures perpetrators receive the maximum possible sentence.”

An inspection report published last year found levels of violence at the prison were very high, with 103 assaults on staff in the previous six months. Over the same period, there were 198 incidents where prisoners had climbed on to safety netting between landings.

“This level of disorder contributed to a tense atmosphere at the prison,” HM Inspectorate of Prisons said. It added that many violent incidents, including serious ones, had not been investigated at all.

The prison needed to do much more to tackle the problem of drugs, which was inextricably linked to violence, the chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke, said in his report.

HMP Nottingham is a category B male prison, which expanded in 2010 to hold 1,060 prisoners.