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Fury over £575,000 payout to prisoners
FURY erupted yesterday when it emerged that young prisoners at one of the region's jails were paid £575,000 in compensation last year.
The payouts for injuries and unfair treatment at Northallerton Young Offenders' Institution - which holds 252 inmates - were the second highest for any prison in the country.
The figure - equivalent to employing 21 prison officers - is more remarkable because no compensation was paid the previous year at the North Yorkshire jail.
The money was paid in outof-court settlements, without the inmates having to prove a legal case.
The Prison Service refused to give details of the payments, saying it could not comment on individual cases.
Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "If the prison service is not contesting these claims, they are giving in because they can't be bothered to fight or because they think they are going to lose."
The Prison Officers' Association was also outraged, saying the service was giving in to complaints of theft and lost property, and accusations of assault without investigating them.
A huge rise in compensation payouts to prisoners across Britain - to £4,051,310 in the financial year 2005-06 - was condemned when it was revealed last year.
But now the amount paid out at each prison has been released, showing Northallerton to have the second highest total after Liverpool prison, where the figure was £2.8m.
The payouts at the region's other prisons were smaller, but all had increased significantly on the previous year.
In the year to March 2005, Deerbolt Young Offenders' Institution, at Barnard Castle, paid £300, while all the other jails paid nothing in compensation.
But last year, the totals were £8,130 at Acklington, in Northumberland, £6,603 at Durham, and £919 at Full Sutton, near York. Nothing was paid out at Low Newton prison, County Durham.
5:40pm Wednesday 10th January 2007
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