PRISON officers are being sent from the North-East to the south of the country to cover shortfalls despite significant drops in staffing levels at the region's jails, according to research by a prison reform charity.

The Howard League's statistics show that there were 1,621 prison officers working in the facilities in August, 2010, a figure that dropped to 1,040 in July of this year.

The biggest cut has been at Durham Prison which has seen prison officer numbers nearly halved from 311 to just 160, despite having to look after 939 prisoners.

Other figures show that at Deerbolt, a young offenders institution near Barnard Castle, the number of prison officers has dropped form 178 to 120, or 33 per cent, while at Frankland, Durham, the number has gone down from 604 to 420, or 30 per cent.

Holme House, near Stockton, has seen numbers drop from 336 to 200 or 40 per cent, Kirklevington Grange, Yarm, 51 to 40 or 22 per cent and at Long Newton, near Durham, 141 to 100, or 29 per cent.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League, said despite the cut-backs prison officers from the north were being sent down south to plug gaps.

She said: “Last week, the outgoing president of the Prison Governors’ Association revealed that officers were being shipped from the north to plug gaps in the south, and being put up in hotels at a cost of £500 per week each.

“As well as being a shameful waste of taxpayers’ money, this approach will only create more disruption in jails."

Terry Fullerton, a prison officer at Holme House, which has 1,195 prisoners, is North-East and Yorkshire representative for the Prison Officers Association.

He said the Government's own figures showed the number of assaults on prison officers and prisoner-on-prisoner attacks had been rising along with the number of prisoner suicides and incidents of self-harm.

Alleging that staff costs were deliberately slashed at some prisons, including Durham, at a time when privatisation was being considered, he said: "The Prison Service has got itself into such a mess and the Government's reaction seems to be 'it will be all right on the night' which just isn't good enough."

Prisons Minister Andrew Selous rejected the idea there was a problem and said sending officers to southern jails was a temporary issue.

He said: "It's beyond me why the Howard League go out of their way to deliberately mislead the public on the state of our prisons.

"They are less overcrowded than they have been for a decade and they are well-run. We have seen a rapid improvement in the labour market in the South-East, which has led to temporary staff shortages in some prisons.

"However, we are conducting an ongoing recruitment campaign and establishing a reserve force of staff who can be called on when needed."