JAIL TAKEN OVER BY THE INMATES
Staff beaten up by marauding prisoners ++ Guards hiding in offices ++ Drugs used openly ++ Now ministers take back control from G4S
STAFF have lost control of one of Britain’s biggest prisons, a shocking report reveals today.
Inmates are openly taking drugs, carrying out assaults and behaving with ‘near impunity’.
In a dramatic escalation of the dire situation in the country’s jails, inspectors warn that Birmingham Prison is in ‘a state of crisis’ and host to ‘appalling violence and squalor’.
The situation is so out of hand that inmates are roaming around unchecked while ‘fearful’ staff lock themselves in their offices or sleep when they should be on patrol. In his report today, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, accuses the Ministry of Justice of an ‘abject failure’ to monitor the jail, which is run by G4S on a 15-year, £30million private contract.
After being confronted with the findings, Justice Secretary David Gauke took the dramatic step of moving the jail back into Government control for at least six months. A new governor has been appointed, 30 extra staff moved in and 300 inmates moved out.
Mr Gauke insisted there would be no additional cost to the taxpayer. But the scathing assessment of conditions at the Category B prison – the first in the public sector to be privatised – is a major blow and will spark intense concern about the state of our jails.
A series of dire reports have already suggested that prisons are mired in chronic overcrowding, surging violence and rampant drug abuse.
Tory ministers now face a battle to
restore the party’s reputation on law and order. Mr Clarke’s report, following an unannounced inspection at the end of July and start of August, assessed the 1,400-place jail in Birmingham to be failing in every one of the criteria. It found:
Birmingham was the most violent prison in England and Wales and thugs could act with ‘near impunity’;
Inmates intimidated staff without consequence and ‘routinely disregarded the rules’. There was a ‘general lack of order’;
Staff were ‘fearful’ and locked themselves in offices – or slept – when they should have been on patrol;
Blatant drug use went unpunished and prison officers simply shrugged their shoulders when challenged by inspectors;
Trafficking of illegal substances including Spice was ‘blatant’ and drug use so widespread inspectors felt ‘physically affected’ by cannabis smoke in the air;
50 high risk criminals are due to be released in the next three months, and measures to protect the public are ‘very poor’.
The prison was filthy, infested with rats and cockroaches and blood and vomit not cleaned up.
The lack of security at the jail – the scene of a major riot in 2016 – was highlighted during the inspection itself when there was an arson attack on a supposedly secure car park in which inspectors’ cars were destroyed.
Warning of ‘high levels of violence and delinquency’, Mr Clarke said serious assaults had left staff and inmates needing hospital treatment. A ‘wholly inadequate’ response meant most attacks were ignored and investigations eventually dropped.
Bullied prisoners hid in their cells for fear of attack, with many emerging for just one hour a day to have a shower.
The report said: ‘Throughout our investigation we observed a prison where control was tenuous...with wing staff often not knowing where their prisoners were at any one time. There was a general lack of order on some wings and the movement of prisoners from place to place within the prison
‘We saw prisoners intimidating staff’
lacked sufficient control.’ One in three prisoners were on drugs and one in seven said they had started using since being locked up. Mr Clarke said the ‘use and trafficking of illegal substances was blatant’ but staff did nothing about it.
The report said: ‘When inspectors raised the fact that drugs were clearly being smoked on a wing, the response from staff was to shrug.’
Condemning ‘ineffective’ leadership and management, Mr Clarke said staff were ‘ anxious and fearful’ as they did their jobs. ‘ We saw prisoners behaving poorly or intimidating staff and other prisoners without challenge and staff were ineffective in maintaining even basic standards.
‘It was often difficult to find officers, although we did find some asleep during prisoner lockup periods. On more than one occasion we found groups of staff who had locked themselves in their offices.’
Ministry of Justice sources said the decision to step in at the jail had been in train for some time, and insisted the other four G4S prisons were performing well.
But one Whitehall source told the Mail the decision had been made in recent days in response to the catastrophic findings of the report. Mr Clarke issued an ‘urgent notification’ to the Ministry of Justice last Friday in a letter to Mr Gauke.
G4S took over HMP Birmingham in 2011 when it became the first prison to be privatised.
It is only the latest in a string of scandals to affect the firm. In 2012, it botched the security of the Olympic Games leaving the Government to summon the Armed Forces to fill the gaps.
Prisons minister Rory Stewart said: ‘What we have seen at Birmingham is unacceptable and it has become clear that drastic action is required.’
Jerry Petherick, boss of G4S said: ‘The well-being and safety of prisoners and prison staff is our key priority and we welcome the six month step-in and the opportunity to work with the Ministry of Justice to urgently address the issues faced at the prison.’
THE decision to seize back control of Birmingham Prison is the culmination of months of increasingly dire warnings.
Campaigners warned of chronic overcrowding and surging violence in chaotic, drug-soaked institutions.
Shocking images regularly posted online highlight how inmates are taking advantage of acute low staffing and spiralling morale.
As well as smuggling in mobile phones, illicit substances and other luxury items, many boast about their ‘easy life’ behind bars.
Contraband is often delivered using drones, 32 of which have been seized in just six months – more than one a week.
Incredibly, it was recently revealed prisoners in Cheshire were cooking sausages, bacon, fish and steaks simply thrown over the fence.
Specialist teams have been sent in to quell explosions of violence – including at Birmingham following a 15-hour riot in 2016.
Officials have condemned conditions in the nation’s prisons as the ‘most disturbing’ ever seen. Just a few weeks ago inspectors said jails were rife with violence, drugs, suicide and self-harm.
One report said the living standards in some institutions ‘have no place in an advanced nation in the 21st century’.
Chief inspector Peter Clarke singled out conditions at HMP Liverpool, where some convicts were forced to live in damp cells with exposed electrical wiring and infested with rats and cockroaches.
Standards at HMP Nottingham, a Category B prison, were so bad it was feared this was driving inmates to kill themselves. Eight men had taken their own lives in the two years to January.
Amid concerns staff cannot cope with chronic overcrowding, jails have been hit by record levels of assaults and self-harm.
Figures show the number of attacks on staff and inmates has doubled since 2012 to a record 29,485 last year – or one every 18 minutes. Incidents of self-harm also rose from 23,158 in 2012 to 44,651 last year. Meanwhile, the number of prison officers has fallen by 8,000 – nearly 20 per cent – since 2010.
In January Mr Clarke used new powers to demand ministers improve a ‘fundamentally unsafe’ jail.
He issued an ‘urgent notification’, requiring the Justice Secretary to make an action plan to tackle ‘serious failures’ at HMP Nottingham.
Rattled by the scale of the crisis engulfing jails in England and Wales, the Ministry of Justice has been busy trying to re-establish control.
Last week prisons minister Rory Stewart said he would resign in a year if he does not reduce drug and violence levels at ten target jails.
He made the promise as the Government announced £10million to improve security and conditions.
Officials hope body scanners and sniffer dogs will help clamp down on smuggling of drugs, including Spice, and mobile phones.
Ministers want to raise standards of leadership by sending prison governors to military-style colleges.
There will also be a programme of repairs and improvements to cell windows and perimeter security.
‘Most disturbing conditions seen’