A trial of Tasers in prisons saw officers deploy the weapons five times in its first nine months. They never fired them, BBC South East has reported.
The five incidents reportedly took place between July 2025 and April 2026 at four prisons in England. They were HMP Lewes, HMP High Down, HMP Bullingdon and HMP Featherstone.
The BBC said officers took the weapons out of their holsters “on a number of occasions”. At two of the jails, officers aimed the red dot of light at a prisoner as a warning.
The trial has a narrow scope. Only 20 specialist staff have had access to Tasers, for use in complex incidents such as hostage-taking and barricades.
They belong to the Operational Response and Resilience Unit (ORRU). This national team within HM Prison and Probation Service handles high-risk incidents.
The Government has said the Taser experiment in prisons in England and Wales forms part of a £15 million package. The money covers protective equipment, including more body armour for staff. Ministers have said 500 prison officers will eventually get the stun-guns, with the aim of reducing violence.
Tom Wheatley, President of the Prison Governors’ Association, expects some prisons to deploy staff routinely with access to Tasers in future. He said that would allow them to react quickly to the most serious incidents. He hoped it would also help staff resolve such incidents safely, without anyone getting hurt.
Steve Gillan, General Secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), agreed. “The world is changing and we are dealing with a very different violent cohort of offenders with vicious assaults and attacks on each other,” he said.
He added that the POA was pleased that Tasers would be available on a controlled basis in exceptional circumstances.
The Howard League for Penal Reform took a different view. Its Director of Campaigns, Andrew Neilson, said the policy risked escalating tensions in jails.
“The answer is not more weapons,” he said. He argued that prisons should run stable, productive regimes that get people out of their cells and into purposeful activity. He also called for more action on overcrowding, which he said had put jails under intolerable pressure.
Three of the trial prisons hold men in the South East. HMP Lewes is a category B reception prison and HMP High Down a category C prison. HMP Bullingdon is a reception prison. HMP Featherstone is a category C men’s prison in the West Midlands.
