UK prison riot quelled

The privately-operated HMP Birmingham prison saw rioting involving as many as 600 inmates on Friday. The authorities regained control of the jail, which houses 1,450 inmates, after the “serious disturbance” spread across all four wings of the prison.About 240 inmates involved in the 12-hour riot at one of Britain’s biggest prisons are being moved out of the jail, the ministry of justice has said.The HMP Birmingham was formerly known as Winson Green prison.Specially-trained prison guards, known as “Tornado” squads, were backed up by about 25 riot police officers as they moved into the Victorian facility.Order was not restored until late on Friday night.One prisoner is understood to have sustained a broken jaw during the disturbances but no prison officers were injured.A ministry spokeswoman said the prison remained “calm and ordered” yesterday and additional staff remained on site.“The Prison Service will continue to work closely with G4S to manage the prison safely over the coming days. A full assessment of the damage is under way. Initial reports indicate that two wings suffered superficial damage, with more serious damage to a further two wings,” she said.“A limited regime is being offered to those who were not involved in the disturbance and staff continue to work closely with West Midlands police. A thorough investigation into the disturbance is under way.”The ministry did not say where the prisoners were being transferred the day after the disturbance, which was the third in a prison in England in less than two months.Mike Rolfe, the national chairman of the Prison Officers Association, said that more than 30 staff had left the jail in recent weeks.“This prison is a tough place to work, it serves a very big area, it serves a large, dangerous population of prisoners, but it’s not unlike many other prisons up and down the country – ones that have very similar inmates,” he told the BBC.“We’ve been warning for a long time about the crisis in prisons, and what we are seeing at Birmingham is not unique to Birmingham, but it certainly would seem that this is the most recent worst incident since the 1990 Strangeways riot.”The justice secretary, Liz Truss, said the situation, in which keys giving access to residential prison areas were taken from an officer and inmates occupied some blocks and exercise facilities, would be investigated thoroughly.“Violence in our prisons will not be tolerated and those responsible will face the full force of the law,” she said.G4S executive Jerry Petherick said that the prisoners behind the trouble displayed a callous disregard for the safety of other inmates and staff.“This disturbance will rightly be subject to scrutiny and we will work openly and transparently with the ministry of justice and other relevant authorities to understand the cause of [Friday’s] disorder.”The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, told Channel 4 News that “private companies should not be involved in taking away people’s liberty”. He said: “Actually, it’s clear that G4S don’t have the quality of staff to manage a crisis like this.”Robert Neill, the Conservative chairman of the Commons justice committee, told the programme that the MPs on his committee had warned the government that a “time bomb was ticking” because prisons were in crisis.Asked if this had been the worst prison riot in years, Neill replied: “This is a problem which has happened both in privately and publicly run systems, so it applies across the piece.”“I think that does indicate that we have got a situation where, if people are locked down 22, 23 hours a day, as we have discovered, that breeds tension, that breeds violence, and, as you rightly say, we are not actually keeping prisons secure enough to stop contraband getting in,” he added.