While Britain's attention turns to AI safety debates in Delhi and the future risks of technology, a more immediate crisis is unfolding in our prisons. Violence behind bars has exploded.

Serious prisoner-on-prisoner assaults nearly doubled in 2023, jumping 91% from the previous year. For every 1,000 prisoners, there are now 24.4 serious assaults — up from 12.8 in 2022. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Safety in Custody -- safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-23 -- 3_1_Summary_assault_statistics)

This isn't just a statistical blip. It's the highest rate of serious prison violence in years, happening in a system already stretched beyond breaking point.

The numbers reveal a system in crisis. What counts as a 'serious assault' isn't a scuffle or shoving match — these are attacks requiring hospital treatment or causing significant injury. Each incident represents someone's son, father, or brother being seriously hurt while in state custody.

The timing couldn't be worse. Britain's prisons are already operating at near-capacity, with overcrowding forcing early releases and emergency measures. Now, the prisoners who remain are attacking each other at unprecedented rates.

Consider what this means for the 87,000 people currently locked up in England and Wales. In a typical Category B prison holding 800 inmates, you'd expect roughly 20 serious assaults this year. That's nearly two hospital-worthy attacks every month in a single facility.

The surge isn't uniform across the prison estate, but the overall trend is unmistakable. Whatever combination of factors — understaffing, overcrowding, longer sentences, or changes in the prisoner population — created this spike, it's making an already dangerous job even more perilous for both inmates and staff.

Prison officers, already leaving the service in record numbers, now face workplaces where serious violence has become routine. The ripple effects extend beyond prison walls too — violent incidents disrupt rehabilitation programmes, delay releases, and make reintegration harder for everyone inside.

While politicians debate hypothetical AI risks, this data shows a very real crisis unfolding in institutions we've largely forgotten about. The question isn't whether artificial intelligence will threaten human safety in the future. It's whether we can protect the humans we've already locked away today.