19/04/2017 South Today

They do leave being attacked and not for the news where you are.

They do leave being attacked and not overwork. Prison officers at stake

out about their views are working out jails.

After being abandoned as a baby, how After being abandoned as a baby, how

Tjili is now taking the art world by storm.

Prison officers in Dorset say they feel like they risk

being attacked every day they go to work.

Two officers from Portland Prison have spoken out to BBC South saying

conditions are deteriorating because of overcrowding, staff

The Government says it's reforming prisons to make them safer.

But today a European watchdog warned violence in UK prisons

is spiralling out of control and incidents are

In the south, the Ministry of Justice says prisons

are crowded with more inmates than they were designed to hold.

Laurence Herdman has been investigating the pressures

I've been in the service for 24 years and I've never

The issues to having to deal with on a daily basis are not

what you'd expect of a normal job where you'd expect to go home safely

Imagine going to work expecting to be attacked,

Well, prison officers have been left battered and bruised,

with one ambulance after another being called to Portland.

Before you even start, your head is thinking,

how am I going to get through this without being assaulted?

But on the other hand, you've got to do the job,

which is challenge prisoners' bad behaviour, make sure

The pressures on staff nowadays are phenomenal.

It's rare for prison officers to speak to the media,

but they feel it's important the public knows the reality

And the job has become even tougher with the availability of Spice.

This is a powerful synthetic drug with devastating side-effects.

I was knocked out about a year ago by a prisoner coming

Head-butted me from nowhere, knocked the clean-up.

Head-butted me from nowhere, knocked me clean-up.

This is the story of one prison but it's just the same

The Prison Officers Association say that the number

of attacks has gone up with overcrowding,

The Ministry of Justice recognises those crowding problems

at prisons in Guys Marsh, at Winchester and the Isle of Wight.

But it says there is no staff shortage problem,

They add that these are long-standing issues,

but officers at Portland feel time is running out.

We are at crisis and something needs to be done

Well, Noel Smith spent 32 years in and out of prison for a number

He's now turned his life around and is an editor of a newspaper

Earlier I asked him what he made of the claims

I don't think it's any surprise, really.

I mean, we've got a prison system that's been in crisis

Nobody seems to do anything about it, the people in power.

But, yeah, they're right to be scared.

You look at the rising assaults on prison officers

by inmates and the amount of staff that have been taken out of prisons.

They've taken a lot of experienced staff out, 8000 prison staff,

replaced them with 2500 - who haven't even got there yet -

who are actually beginners so they have no

Prisons are overcrowded and prisoners see that and they see

the fact that the staff are helpless and they become targets.

The Ministry of Justice say that they are investing

I think it is, really, I mean, last year alone they took

?193 million off the prison budget, so what they are doing is taking

away with one hand and giving back a little bit with the other hand

and making out that they are actually doing something.

I'm quite surprised that nothing has been done with the prison system

because they've known it's in crisis for at least three years.

You know what it's like to be inside, we are hearing these reports

from prison officers, what about prisoners?

Well, prisoners are pretty aggrieved as well.

I mean, the system has changed a lot since I came out in 2010.

I get letters at the paper every day from different prisoners

Our prison system is overcrowded, we've got a drug problem,

Prisoners will see what is going on, they're not stupid.

They are down at the shop as well as the officers and some

of them will try and take advantage of it and others will be frightened.

We need a complete overhaul of the prison system.

What we should be doing is looking more to the European...

The Swedish way of doing things is quite good.

They are closing prisons in Sweden because they've

Over here prisoners are not being rehabilitated,

they are being left in cells with a 12-inch portable

television all day, laying in their beds doing nothing.

In other countries, they actually train prisoners and give them

something to get out and, you know, job prospects

Noel Smith, fascinating talking to you.

Thanks very much indeed for coming in.

It's been dubbed Britain's Palm Beach but plans worth ?250 million

could radically change the face of Sandbanks in Dorset.

Owners of the Sandbanks Hotel want to knock it down and rebuild it,

It would mean its sister hotel - the Haven - would be demolished

to make way for almost 200 flats, along with a rooftop

restaurant in a building some ten storeys high.

A historic ferry service, connecting both sides

The Hampshire boat hire firm Blue Funnel Cruises has agreed

a deal to buy the Hythe Ferry and pier and will take

The service was under threat after passenger numbers fell

and the previous operator said it could no longer afford to run it.

Jo Kent has been looking at this and joins me now.

I imagine this is welcome news in Hythe?

Yes, the local community turned out in force to try

There were petitions and public meetings,

and tonight supporters welcomed the news that the service

will continue, with Blue Funnel Cruises at the helm.

The service crosses Southampton Water from the town

of Hythe on the edge of the New Forest to Town Quay

in Southampton, saving an 11-mile road trip.

We don't know how much the Blue Funnel deal is worth

but the company is promising to improve the service by upgrading

the ferry with more comfortable seating and adding a second vessel

It also says there are no plans for redundancies

But it's seen falling passenger numbers?

Yes, the number of regular commuters has fallen.

It wasn't helped when a vessel crashed into Hythe Pier last year.

An investigation found a mechanical failure was to blame.

The other reason the previous operator found things difficult

was that it was also responsible for the upkeep of the historic

This is the oldest running pier train anywhere in the world, dating

back to Victorian times, and as you can imagine

Blue Funnel will initially be responsible for it.

However, we understand that the longer-term plan

is for a community group to take over the running of the pier -

they hope to secure funding such as lottery grants to restore it.

She was abandoned as a baby, has cerebral palsy

But Tjili Grant Wetherill has overcome huge challenges thanks

to the love of her adoptive parents from the New Forest.

And Tjili - who's now 15 - is getting recognition

for her extraordinary talent as an artist.

Weighing barely more than two pounds, she was abandoned

as a premature baby outside a Cambodian hospital in 2001.

A few weeks later, James and Vik Grant Wetherill,

who were living overseas and looking for a child to adopt,

She was sitting in a dark corner of her orphanage

with a mosquito net over her, with no one really

We moved aside the net and she grabbed our finger.

Tests showed Tjili was profoundly deaf and had cerebral palsy.

Years of physiotherapy, love and determination have seen

Now living back in the New Forest, she enjoys an active life.

Communication is through gestures, limited sign language and basic

But there is nothing basic about Tjili's ability to express

In order to hold the paper down, she has to use one arm and then

she grips the pencil and it is every single piece of her

Two of Tjili's pieces were recently selected from 2000 entries

by the Royal Watercolour Society for a major exhibition.

The judges had no idea of her challenges.

She actually sees that what she is doing isn't just child's play.

It's real pieces of art, works of art that she is produced

Sales of her pictures support her development and access

-- and at this Forest hotel Tjili's work

is side-by-side with the likes of Tracey Emin.

We all are very capable of saying, no, I can't, or, I won't.

We're back tomorrow with bulletins news team this evening.

We're back tomorrow with bulletins in BBC Breakfast and there's more

Time now for our regional weather forecast.

The result tonight, we expected some cloud. Where there is still unclear

countryside of a frost. Also some countryside of a frost. Also some

mist patches. The further north and west you are, the odd shopper. --

the odd shower. Sunny spells will develop to the course of the

morning. Through the afternoon, the cloud filled with suffered. It will

bring the odd spot of rain. Temperatures will retain a high of

13 sources. More sunshine across the south coast and the Isle of White. A

sea breeze develops. A dry end to the day tomorrow night. The odd spot

of rain is a possibility. Friday starts on a cloudy night. Ultimo.

Through the course of the evening, the cold front will move Salford.

Cool air coming in just in time for the weekend. This month has been

very dry indeed. Hardly any rainfall to stick. There will be some more

rain for the start of next week. going into the weekend as well. A

similar story across the UK. Thomas matter has that story.

Good evening, before we get to the forecast, I want to show you a map

which depicts how dry it has been during the course of April. Brown is

below average rainfall, blue is above average. You can see how Brown

the map is. Some areas in the south, some counties have only seen a few

percent so far in April. Not necessarily a good thing at all. The

rest of the week, not an awful lot of change, a fair bit of cloud and

just a bit warmer but only marginally. The clouds are still

streaming in off the Atlantic. This is fairly