ASSAULTS in Dorset's prisons have rocketed over five years.

The rise in attacks on staff and prisoners, revealed in figures from the Ministry of Justice, shows the scale of the task prison officers are facing.

The increase reflects a national trend, which prison reform campaigners have described as a “national emergency”.

Of the 303 assaults recorded at HMP/YOI Portland in 2017, 105 were on prison staff. And 37 assaults were defined as serious, a category which includes sexual assaults and those where victims required hospital in-patient treatment.

In 2012, 153 assaults were recorded, meaning a five-year increase of 98 per cent.

The numbers also reveal that 188 cases of self-harm were recorded at the jail last year, compared to just 70 in 2012.

Assaults also doubled at The Verne immigration removal centre (IRC), where 65 assaults were recorded in 2017, 12 on prison staff. Three assaults were defined as serious.

In 2012, 27 assaults were recorded, meaning a five-year increase of 141 per cent.

The numbers also reveal that 37 cases of self-harm were recorded in The Verne last year, compared to just 5 in 2012. There was one self-inflicted death.

In October 2013, The Verne was changed from a category C prison to an immigration removal centre. It was decommissioned for detainees in December 2017. It is due to reopen as a category C prison later this year, housing 580 offenders.

At HMP Guy’s Marsh near Shaftesbury 211 assaults were recorded in 2017, of which 60 were on prison staff. In 2012, 69 assaults were recorded, meaning there has been an increase of 206 per cent.

The Home Office has stressed the number of assault incidents at HMP Guys Marsh in 2017 is actually down compared to the previous year.

At Guy’s Marsh 22 assaults were defined as serious.

Figures also reveal that 172 cases of self-harm were recorded last year, compared with just 67 in 2012.

Across prisons in England and Wales, nearly 30,000 assaults were recorded last year, more than double the number in 2012. Self-harm also increased by 92 per cent over the same five-year period, with nearly 45,000 cases in 2017.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “This shameful rise in violence and self-injury is the direct result of policy decisions to allow the number of people behind bars to grow unchecked while starving prisons of resources.

“This is a national emergency, and the government must respond boldly and urgently.”

Justice Secretary David Gauke said “urgent action” was being taken to address the problem.

He said: “Assaults on our hardworking staff will never be tolerated. We are ensuring prison officers have the tools they need to do the job, rolling out body worn cameras, ‘police-style’ handcuffs and restraints, and trialling PAVA incapacitant spray.”

He said “90 per cent of our additional 3,111 prison officers” would be “on landings by the summer”.

The Home Office says there was a change in the way assaults are reported in April 2017 which may have contributed to the rise nationally.

It also says a lot of the problems in prisons have been caused by drugs, with the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman describing new psychoactive substances as a 'game changer' for prison safety. This has led to more than 300 specialist drug dogs being trained, body scanners and intelligence-led searches have been introduced, and possessing psychoactive substances in prison is now a criminal offence.