A NORTH-East prison is in “crisis”, partly due to new prison officers coming out of school and having to deal with violent offenders, an MP has claimed.

In the last few months alone Holme House Prison in Stockton has seen drugs found 81 times - on one occasion a haul of nearly six kilos of Spice worth £200,000, and violence is increasing, Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham said.

He raised the issue with Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah in the House of Commons, saying: “The Minister will be aware of the major drug finds and related problems at Holme House Prison in my constituency which has seen experienced officers leave and replaced by 18-year-old recruits.

“Does the Minister really think that recruiting youngsters is the answer to meet the needs of our increasing prison population, the answer to tackle drugs, or solve the crisis in this service?”

Mr Gyimah replied: “I take issue with the implication behind the honourable Gentleman’s question.

“We are recruiting new prison officers. We were all inexperienced once, but that did not mean that we were not capable of doing our jobs.

“I know that many of our recruits are of the highest calibre, and that the recruitment methods are those that have been used over a number of years. The Opposition did not believe that we could deliver these numbers, but we are delivering them, and I think that the Opposition should be supporting the Government.”

Mr Cunningham said afterwards that the Minister had dismissed the "very real" concerns of prison officers with his “off the cuff” remark.

“We need highly-trained experts looking after the inmates – the minister's response simply isn’t good enough,” he said.

“These kind of incidents show being a prison officer is a challenging and dangerous job and is very different to starting an apprenticeship in an engineering company or working in a call centre.

"We need highly-trained experts looking after the inmates – the minister’s response simply isn’t good enough.”

Ian Carson, national executive member of the Prison Officers Association, said there was a "spine" of experienced officers at Holme House – but if they are gradually replaced with young recruits then problems were being stored up for the future.

"We will see a huge increase in the number of staff that are suspended, or dismissed, because prisoners are very good at understanding you and you are vulnerable. They are extremely manipulative when it comes to inexperienced officers and we are already seeing that."