Violence behind bars led to more than 700 attacks on inmates and prison staff at HMP Haverigg in a decade, new figures show.
Between 2012-13 and 2019-20, nearly 100 assaults were recorded every year – but major changes appear to have contributed to a significant drop in violence at the jail.
Haverigg recorded 778 assaults in the ten years to March, including 165 attacks on prison officers and staff.
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More than 100 of those incidents were logged as serious, meaning they could have included stabbings, fractures, scalds and sexual assaults.
However, incidents of violence plummeted dramatically during 2020-21, falling to just five incidents from 73 the year before. Last year, six assaults were recorded.
Jails across the country also saw a drop in violence during that first year of the pandemic, when inmates were isolated during prison lockdowns.
And in Haverigg, major changes to the way the prison operates is also likely to have had a significant impact.
In December 2019, it became a category D open prison, designated as a resource to house men convicted of sexual offences.
A report from the Independent Monitoring Board, published in February, found the prison was a safe environment.
The report said: “Very low levels of self-harm and incidences of violence ensure the prison was settled throughout much of the year.”
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Inmates told the Board they felt the pandemic had been handled well and that they felt safe.
The Howard League for Penal Reform said a national rise in prison violence following the lifting of pandemic restrictions could be linked to the “physical and mental toll of those restrictions”.
Prisoners at Haverigg expressed concern about a lack of purposeful activity during the pandemic, the suspension of release on licence arrangements and their inability to make progress and prepare for release.
But unlike other jails, they had almost unlimited freedom of movement within their own wings during lockdown periods.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said assault rates across the country had fallen since 2019-20.
Prison officers across England and Wales have been given more than 6,000 body worn video cameras and the use of a synthetic pepper spray is also currently being rolled out to protect staff and prisoners from incidents of serious violence.
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