Prisoners in South Yorkshire among those awarded £850,000 compensation for lost property
Prisoners have received compensation payouts for lost or damaged property totalling more than £850,000, new figures show.
More than 10,000 awards for items ranging from hair clippers to DVD players have been made since 2013, statistics obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.
HMP Lindholme, in Doncaster, is one of 10 prisons included in a snapshot of recent cases showing the types of items and amounts for which claims have been made. An inmate there received £4.09 in compensation for toiletries.
Figures supplied to PA by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show 10,537 compensation payments adding up to £856,000 were made to prisoners across England and Wales for lost and damaged property over the four years from 2013/14 to 2016/17.
Lost and damaged property accounted for more than a quarter of complaints investigated by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman last year.
In July, the watchdog warned that prisons are 'using scarce resources paying compensation for lost and damaged property' and said it was time for the prison service to 'get a grip'.
The TaxPayers' Alliance said the numbers 'paint a terrible picture', but the MoJ said it 'robustly' defends claims and is successful in two thirds of cases brought by prisoners.