JUSTICE secretary Liz Truss has stepped in to stop growing fears among prison officers, including those at Erlestoke, near Devizes, over safety in jails leading to a walk out.

The Prison Officers Association had planned to hold meetings outside every jail in England and Wales on Tuesday, to highlight problems over increasing violence and suicide in English and Welsh prisons.

The move could have been seen as an unofficial walkout by the union, which is banned from staging strikes. It was called off after branch meetings to talk about matters were authorised.

The issue of growing violence was highlighted at Erlestoke in June when a riot left two cell blocks out of use and 130 prisoners had to be relocated. It emerged this week that one prisoner at Erlestoke that weekend was former Royal Marine Alexander Blackman, who has so far spent three years behind bars after he was given a life sentence for killing a Taliban insurgent in Afghanistan in 2011.

The Daily Mail is fighting to have his case reviewed and as more than 2,000 ex-Royal Marines and other former military personnel gathered in Parliament Square in a show of support last weekend they spoke to him in Erlestoke.

He told The Mail: "Some guys on my wing came into my cell because of its grandstand view and began shouting encouragement to those in the other block.’

"I asked them to stop, because if they were seen at my window I would get the blame, and (under the Public Order Act) you can get another ten years on top of your sentence for taking part in a riot.

"There will always be some here who have an 'us and them' approach to the prison authorities and life inside. But mine is a strictly 'me and me' or a 'me and Claire' [his wife].

"I have no interest in getting into trouble. I am polite to everyone, and if anyone is rude to me I just don’t react. I don’t know how much longer I will be in here, a year or until 2020, but I don’t want to make it harder for me or for Claire.

"Our future is the most important thing and I don’t want to jeopardise it any more than it has been already. Claire has suffered enough."

He says the highlight of his week is "the two hours I get to hold Claire’s hand during visiting time."

He also revealed that a charity power-lifting contest he was due to take part in was cancelled as the authorities feared it would encourage some inmates to get body-building steroid pills smuggled into the jail.

The POA spoke at the time of the Erlestoke riot of a new breed of prisoner that had no respect for authority and a growing problem with drugs.

Now following Ms Truss' decision to meet union leaders called off the action. She has promised urgent talks on health and safety and recruitment problems.

Vice-chair of the Prison Officers' Association, Ralph Valerio, said: "Government inertia is a great cause of the violence epidemic that is sweeping our prison estate. No-one knows how to run the prison system better than prison officers and those who work in it."

A major announcement on prison reform is expected from the Government on Thursday.