Brazen videos ‘reveal teen gangs have taken over jail’
Fifth of young inmates are killers – and sex assaults on women staff go unpunished
SINGING gangster rap and posting photos of themselves taken on illegally held mobile phones, these are inmates of Britain’s most notorious youth prison.
The i mages from Feltham A Young Offenders’ Institution show the brazen defiance of those in the jail housing 15-to-18-year-olds.
Now The Mail on Sunday has learned that almost one prisoner in five there is a convicted killer or charged with murder.
About 75 per cent of inmates have committed, or been charged with, crimes often associated with gangs, including possession of firearms, drug- dealing and knife offences.
The shocking statistics come just days after the authorities stopped sending new inmates to the West London site, which holds just over 100 teenage boys, because it is close to being out of control. Violent incidents there have risen by 45 per cent since January.
The Mail on Sunday has identified gang members who have appeared online in images posted from Feltham. They include Hugo Da Silva, 17, of the 9th Street Gang from North-West London.
He was jailed in April for seven years after carrying out a frenzied knife attack on a 20-year-old man who refused to hand over his mobile phone in an attempted robbery.
He is locked up alongside a violent 16-year-old from the banned 1011 gang (now called CGM), from West London, who has also posted images of himself online.
And a rapper known as DSav, of the ACG gang in Beckton, East London, has released videos of himself singing with other inmates behind bars. Last week Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, issued a rarely used urgent notification to call for the Government to intervene because of an ‘extraordinary’ decline in standards at the jail over the past 18 months.
During one weekend in April, 20 officers were injured in separate incidents, with 13 requiring hospital treatment. The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) says female staff have been sexually assaulted by young offenders but these cases have not been pursued by authorities. Staff describe Feltham as ‘hellish’ and complain that young criminals are repeatedly making spurious complaints over their treatment. They can make free calls to advocacy groups such as The Howard L League for Penal Reform, w which then intervenes on the y youngsters’ behalf. In 2017, The Howard League w won a High Court case blockin ing the use of an isolation unit at the prison for particularly d difficult young criminals. Prison officers claim this ru ruling is partly responsible for th the increase in violence and dr dramatic decline in standards. T The POA’s Dave Cook said: ‘T ‘These lads, who have a loyalty to a gang, will attack each other if t they have an opportunity. ‘T ‘The issue in Feltham is the mu multiple gangs and trying to kee keep them separated.’ T The Ministry of Justice said it w was working to remove the offe offending social media accounts and officials are understood to be moving staff from Feltham B, for offenders aged 18 to 21, to assist at the jail.