Winchester prison is set to be given a government cash injection to pay for more staff.

The category B prison is one of ten which will share £14m of government money to bring in "new ways of working" under prison reforms.

But campaigners and a former employee at the prison say the measures do not go far enough to repair the damage done by previous cuts and the Prison Officers Association (POA) saying it is like "using a band aid over a gaping wound"

A government document reveals the funds will help pay for more than 400 extra staff at the prisons which have amongst the worst levels of violence and self-harm.

Winchester had the highest regional figures for deaths in custody in 2015, according to Ministry of Justice data.

There were seven deaths with four suicides, which included the death of fathers' rights campaigner Haydn Burton.

The prison had come under fire from within with sources telling the Echo there was a "lack of morale" among staff who had to deal with increased violence and the spread of legal highs.

A member of the POA's national executive committee, said:"Since 2010 there have been 10,000 frontline Prison Officer jobs lost and a saving of £900 million. To now say 10 jails including Winchester will get additional funding to recruit more staff in addition to the secretary of states announcement of an additional 2500 staff is an attempt to place a band aid over a gaping wound.

"Our employer struggles to recruit staff due to inadequate starting salaries and cannot retain staff due to unsafe working conditions.

"I am pleased that the new Governor at Winchester has staff and prisoner safety as a priority and has engaged with the POA to ensure Winchester moves forward."

"Our members have had enough of being attacked and a 43 per cent increase in assaults on staff will not be tolerated by the POA.

A source who worked at the prison said additional staff would not mean more prison officers on duty at any one time as they would be swallowed up by rest days, annual leave, sickness, training, and night shift cover.

The source commented: "There has to be a balance between the staffing numbers and the regime - when you have a regime with a high amount of time out of cell in an establishment that is under-resourced, there aren't enough staff to maintain control which is when assaults and incidents become more prevalent."

Andrew Neilson, Director of Campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “The award of extra funding to 10 prisons including Winchester is welcome, but it is unlikely to be enough to solve the many serious problems in the prison system.

“The government is right to attempt to reverse cuts to staffing, but the high levels of violence, death and self-injury are such that it will take more than just bodies in uniform to turn things around.

“What we desperately need is a real commitment to trying to lower prison numbers and reduce overcrowding."

Winchester MP, Steve Brine, said: “It is absolutely right that prisons punish people who commit serious crimes by depriving them of their most fundamental right - their liberty. But they should also be places of safety and reform.

"Our reoffending rates have remained too high for too long so that is why we are undertaking a major shake-up of the prison system. We need to turn our prisons into places where offenders get off drugs and get the education and skills they need to find work and turn their back on crime for good.

“Prisons need to be more than places of containment – they must be places of discipline, hard work, and self-improvement. That is the only way to cut reoffending rates and reduce crime in our communities.”