PRISON-officer numbers were at such a low level that prison unrest, assaults on staff and self-harm rates were soaring, a charity claimed on Wednesday, August 31.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said falling officer numbers in public-sector prisons – due in part to austerity measures, and more recently by recruitment difficulties – were leading to safety in jails deteriorating significantly.

Deaths in prison, prisoner suicides and attacks on inmates were on the increase, fuelled by the falling frontline-officer numbers.

High-security Frankland Prison in Durham – where Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was transferred last month – saw assaults on prisoners increase almost four-fold towards the end of 2015 and early 2016, with the prison told to take prompt action to tackle the issue.

At Holme House Prison in Stockton, violent incidents increased by 60 per cent between 2014 and 2015.

In 2015 a riot at Deerbolt Young Offenders’ Institution, near Barnard Castle, saw inmates take control for several hours, with fires started in some cells and prison officers being forced to retreat under a hail of pool balls and other weaponry.

Durham Prison, which should hold no more than 595 inmates, was significantly overcrowded, averaging 930 earlier this year – but prison officer numbers there dropped by 31 since 2013.

Terry Fullerton, North East representative of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “Murders in prisons, serious assaults on staff, self-harm, suicides and assaults on prisoners have all increased across the country."

Elsewhere, an official inquiry was launched after a chain reaction created a chemical gas cloud which led to four workers being taken to hospital with breathing difficulties.

Emergency services – including a hazardous area response team – rushed to a water treatment company in Billingham, Teesside, just before 11.30am on Saturday, September 3, after receiving a “Red 2”-class call – meaning a potential threat to life.

It is understood that a chemical reaction took place within a container being unloaded at a warehouse at Biochemica UK, on the Cowpen Lane Industrial Estate.

A delivery was being unloaded, but two of the chemicals reacted with each other inside a container and caused a small gas cloud.

Two ambulances and two vehicles from the hazardous area response team were dispatched to the scene.

Finally, a former Bishop of Durham, who supported the miners’ strike in the 1980s and was an open critic of Margaret Thatcher’s policies, died aged 91.

The Right Reverend Dr David Jenkins, who had been living with Alzheimer’s for many years, died on Sunday, September 4 in Barnard Castle, County Durham.

The cleric and theologian was Bishop of Durham from 1984 to 1994 when he retired and took on the post of honorary assistant bishop in Ripon and Leeds.

He was a controversial figure who had been dubbed the “unbelieving bishop” after doubting that God would have arranged a virgin birth and the resurrection.