1990 Strangeways Prison riot - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 1990 Strangeways Prison riot was a 25-day prison riot

Prison riot

A prison riot is an act of concerted defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against the prison administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners in attempt to force change or express a grievance....

and rooftop protest at Strangeways Prison in Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England. The riot began on 1 April 1990 when prisoners took control of the prison chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

, and the riot quickly spread throughout most of the prison. The riot and rooftop protest ended on 25 April when the final five prisoners were removed from the rooftop, making it the longest prison riot in British penal history. One prisoner was killed during the riot, and 147 prison officers and 47 prisoners were injured. Much of the prison was damaged or destroyed with the cost of repairs coming to £55 million.

The riot sparked a series of disturbances in prisons across England, Scotland and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, resulting in the British government announcing a public inquiry

Public inquiry

A Tribunal of Inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body in Common Law countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Canada. Such a public inquiry differs from a Royal Commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more...

into the riots headed by Lord Woolf

Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf

Harry Kenneth Woolf, Baron Woolf, PC, FBA, , born 2 May 1933, was Master of the Rolls from 1996 until 2000 and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2000 until 2005. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 made him the first Lord Chief Justice to be President of the Courts of England and Wales...

. The resulting Woolf Report concluded that conditions in the prison had been intolerable, and recommended major reform of the prison system. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

newspaper described the report as a blueprint for the restoration of "decency and justice into jails where conditions had become intolerable".

Background

Manchester's

Manchester

Strangeways Prison, which opened in 1868, was a "local prison" designed to hold prisoners from the surrounding area, mainly those on remand or serving sentences

Sentence (law)

In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...

of less than five years. At the time of the riot, the main prison consisted of six wings connected by a central rotunda

Rotunda (architecture)

A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...

known as the Centre. Convicted adult prisoners were held in wings A, B, C and D, and convicted young offender

Young offender

A young offender is a young person who has been convicted or cautioned for a criminal offence. Criminal justice systems often deal with young offenders differently from adult offenders, but different countries apply the term 'young offender' to different age groups depending on the age of criminal...

s were held in E wing, which was physically separated from the Centre by gates. Convicted prisoners on Rule 43(a) were held on landings C1 and C2 of C wing, and remand prisoners on Rule 43(a) were held on the fourth landing on E wing. F wing contained administrative offices on the lower floor and the chapel on the upper floor. Remand prisoners were held in wings G, H, I and K of a separate prison, linked to the main prison through workshops and a kitchen. The Certified Normal Accommodation Figure for Strangeways, the number of prisoners the prison was designed to hold, was 970. The population of the prison had increased in the months before the riot, from 1,417 in January 1990 to a peak of 1,658 on 27 March. On 1 April, the prison contained 1,647 prisoners – about 925 convicted adult prisoners, 500 remand prisoners and 210 convicted young offenders.

Prisoners felt their complaints about conditions were being ignored. Remand prisoners were only allowed out of their cells for 18 hours per week, and Category A prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 hours a day, and rarely left their cells except for "slopping out

Slopping out

Slopping out is the emptying of buckets of human waste when the cells are unlocked in prisons in the morning. Inmates without a toilet in the cell have to use a bucket or chamber pot while locked in during the night. The reason that some cells do not have toilets is that they date from the...

", a one-hour exercise period each day or a weekly shower. In March 1990, Dominic Noonan

Dominic Noonan

Dominic Noonan is an English organised crime figure. Dominic Noonan, with his brother Desmond "Dessie" Noonan, headed a criminal organisation or "crime firm" in Manchester, England during the 1980s and 1990s and is a member of one of Manchester's most infamous crime families.Noonan has more than...

was transferred from Strangeways to HM Prison Hull

Hull (HM Prison)

HM Prison Hull is a Category B men's local prison. The term 'local' means that this prison holds people on remand to the local courts. Hull Prison located in Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England...

. Noonan was the organiser of the Prisoners' League Association (PLA), an organisation formed in 1989 which campaigned for prisoners' rights. Its aims included initiating legal proceedings against prison staff for mistreatment of prisoners, and picketing outside prisons in which prisoners were mistreated. The PLA were active at Strangeways Prison, and Noonan's transfer demonstrates prison officers were aware of rising tensions inside the prison. On 26 March, Barry Morton was taken to the "punishment block

Solitary confinement

Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

" and strip-searched

Strip search

A strip search is the stripping of a person to check for weapons or other contraband.-Legality of strip searches:...

after being visited by his mother, as prison officers believed she had brought drugs into the prison for him. During a struggle he sustained a black eye and swollen nose, and the following day he was released back into the main prison along with another prisoner, Tony Bush. Later the same day, Bush and Morton climbed onto the roof of the prison and staged a twenty-hour rooftop protest. On 31 March there was a 30-minute sit-down protest

Sit-in

A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...

in the chapel after a film was shown, which ended after a prison officer promised to listen to the prisoners' grievances. The same evening it is reported that a black prisoner was assaulted by prison officers in front of other prisoners, and injected with Largactil – a sedative

Sedative

A sedative or tranquilizer is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement....

used to control prisoners, known in prisons as the "liquid cosh". Prisoners then decided to stage a further protest in the chapel the following day, 1 April.

Disturbance in the chapel

Prison officers had advance warning that an incident would occur in the chapel on 1 April, and security was increased. Extra prison officers were used to escort prisoners to the service, and fourteen officers were inside the chapel supervising the service instead of the usual total of eight. An additional seven officers were also stationed in the vestry

Vestry

A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....

outside the chapel. The service was attended by 309 prisoners which was about the usual attendance, but all Rule 43(a) prisoners were prevented from attending as a precautionary measure. A senior prison officer believed the prisoners would attempt another sit-down protest with the possibility of hostage

Hostage

A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...

-taking, and instructed staff to evacuate the chapel if trouble began. At approximately 11:00 am, a visiting Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

preacher had just delivered the sermon

Sermon

A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...

, and the prison chaplain, Reverend Noel Proctor, stood to thank the preacher when prisoner Paul Taylor took the microphone from him and addressed the congregation. Reverend Proctor was recording the service for distribution to a prayer group, and the subsequent events were recorded:
As Reverend Proctor was appealing for calm, a prisoner brandishing two sticks shouted out "You've heard enough, let's do it, get the bastards". Other prisoners responded by donning masks and brandishing weapons, and three prison officers started to leave the chapel as earlier instructed. A set of keys was taken from a prison officer when a number of officers were attacked by prisoners wielding fire extinguisher

Fire extinguisher

A fire extinguisher or extinguisher, flame entinguisher is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations...

s, table legs and fire buckets. A number of prisoners attempted to leave the chapel via the vestry; at the same time, the seven prison officers there attempted to gain entry to the chapel. Once they managed to do so, the officers were attacked by prisoners, and a second set of keys was taken from one of them. Some prisoners helped to get injured officers and Reverend Proctor to a place of safety via the vestry, while others barricaded entrances to the chapel or attempted to gain access to the roof.

The riot spreads

The prison officers guarding the gates outside the chapel abandoned them, and ran towards the Centre. The prison officer in charge of the Centre saw his colleagues running from the direction of the chapel, but due to the presence of scaffolding

Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures. It is usually a modular system of metal pipes or tubes, although it can be from other materials...

he was in a poor position to view the upper levels, and mistakenly assumed he saw prisoners running from the chapel. He informed other officers on C1 and D1 of this and, upon hearing that prisoners were in possession of keys, told them and officers on A1 that they should evacuate

Emergency evacuation

Emergency evacuation is the immediate and rapid movement of people away from the threat or actual occurrence of a hazard. Examples range from the small scale evacuation of a building due to a bomb threat or fire to the large scale evacuation of a district because of a flood, bombardment or...

the prison. Governor Morrison, who was responsible for the main prison, was present and did not intervene with these instructions. Morrison then ordered officers to evacuate the Centre at 11:13 am as he mistakenly believed prisoners had entered the Centre. By this time prisoners had gained access to the roofs of E and F wings, and from there gained access to other wings by making holes in unprotected office ceilings.

The prisoners found A and B wings unsupervised as the prison officers had already evacuated, and began to free other prisoners who were still locked in their cells. The prison officer in charge of the first landing of C wing was ordered to evacuate, and with the help of three other officers evacuated the 73 Rule 43(a) prisoners being held there, being fearful for the safety of the prisoners who were regarded as sex offender

Sex offender

A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a...

s. Due to rioting prisoners entering the wing, the officers were unable to evacuate a further seven Rule 43(a) prisoners who were being held on the second landing. Rioting prisoners also gained access to E wing, where the Rule 43(a) prisoners had been left locked in their cells after the prison officers evacuated. A number of these Rule 43(a) prisoners were attacked by rioting prisoners. One such prisoner was Derek White, who was being held on remand on charges of indecent assault

Indecent assault

Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in many jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime.Indecent assault was an offence in England and Wales under sections 14 and 15 the Sexual Offences Act 1956...

and buggery

Buggery

The British English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It may be, also, a specific common law offence, encompassing both sodomy and bestiality.-In law:...

. White later died in North Manchester General Hospital

North Manchester General Hospital

North Manchester General Hospital is a large NHS hospital located in Crumpsall in the north of the English city of Manchester. It is operated as part of the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust....

on 3 April after being admitted suffering from head wounds, a dislocated shoulder and chest pain

Chest pain

Chest pain may be a symptom of a number of serious conditions and is generally considered a medical emergency. Even though it may be determined that the pain is non-cardiac in origin, this is often a diagnosis of exclusion made after ruling out more serious causes of the pain.-Differential...

s.

At 11:43 am rioting prisoners were seen approaching the remand prison, which was still secure. The prison governor, Brendan O'Friel, arrived at the prison at 11:55 am and gave orders to defend the remand prison. He later recalled that:

By 12 o'clock when I came in it looked as if we'd lost control of the whole thing. My first decision was to send a Governor 5 back up to the remand prison to see if we could hold it, but it was too late. That decision, had it been taken half an hour earlier, would have meant we could have held the remand prison, meaning we could have kept another 400 locked up. Assuming the doors would have held, that sort of thing. But we had about 200 staff on duty, and we must have lost nine or ten casualties of one sort or another and then you lose staff getting the casualties out. We didn't have a lot of the staff come pouring in until about 1 o'clock. I tell you what really bugged us was there an element of April Fool about it. We rang staff up about it, who said "You must be joking, is this an April Fool?" That's what happened when they rang up my home, my son thought it was an April Fool.

Rioting prisoners gained access to the remand prison at 12:20 pm through the kitchens in G wing, and began freeing prisoners who were still locked in their cells using stolen keys or improvised tools such as iron bars and fire extinguishers. At this point the rioting prisoners were in control of all accommodation wings of the prison. A large number of prisoners were on the prison roof, and roof tiles and other missiles were thrown at prison officers on the ground. Rioting inside the prison continued with cells being damaged and fires being started, and at 3:40 pm the Public Relations Department of the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

issued a statement:

At 11 am a disturbance started in the chapel at Strangeways Prison when some 300 prisoners attacked staff. Those prisoners then gained access to the chapel roof and then broke into the living accommodation in the main prison. Other prisoners, including those on remand, joined in the disturbance and staff had to be withdrawn. The perimeter is secure.

Between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm approximately 800 prisoners had surrendered, and arrangements were made for them to be transferred to other prisons. At 8:00 pm Governor O'Friel agreed that prison officers should enter E wing, and at 8:05 pm approximately ten Control & Restraint (C&R) units each consisting of twelve prison officers entered the wing. By 8:10 pm all four landings of E wing had been secured, and one C&R unit progressed to the Centre where they fought with rioting prisoners. This was reported to Governor O'Friel, who instructed the officers not to move beyond E wing. Scaffolding poles and other missiles were thrown at the C&R teams from the roof area above the fourth landing in E wing, and when prisoners broke onto the wing the C&R teams withdrew at 0:22 am on 2 April, leaving prisoners in control of the wing. Up to 1,100 of the 1,647 prisoners were involved in the rioting, and by the end of the first day 700 had surrendered and been transferred to other prisons along with 400 prisoners who were not involved in the rioting. Between 200 and 350 prisoners occupied the rooftop of the main prison during the night.

Rooftop protest

At 7:00 am on 2 April, an estimated total of 142 prisoners were still in control of all the accommodation wings of the prison. Some prisoners on the roof gave clenched fist salutes

Raised fist

The raised fist is a symbol of solidarity and support. It is also used as a salute to express unity, strength, defiance, or resistance. The salute dates back to ancient Assyria as a symbol of resistance in the face of violence.-History:Assyrian depictions of the goddess Ishtar show her raising a...

to the crowd watching below. Some prisoners were wearing prison officers' hats and uniforms, while others were wearing masks improvised from towels and blankets. A banner was unveiled that read "No dead", in response to claims in the press that between eleven and twenty prisoners had been killed in the rioting. At 10:00 am, C&R units entered the remand prison and regained control, with six prisoners surrendering peacefully. A Home Office statement was released at 11:45 am stating that no bodies had been found in the remand prison, and 12 prison officers and 37 prisoners had received treatment in hospital to date. Further prisoners surrendered the same day, and by 6:00 pm 114 prisoners remained in the prison. On 3 April newspapers published pictures of the prisoners' "No dead" banner, while still insisting that 20 prisoners had been killed. The prisoners responded with a banner that read "Media contact now". The Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It has an average daily circulation of 90,973 copies...

newspaper was contacted from inside the prison by telephone, and prisoners outlined their demands:

Improved visiting facilities, including the right to physical contact with visitors and a children's play area.
Category A prisoners would be allowed to wear their own clothes and be able to receive food parcels.
Longer exercise periods.
An end to 23-hour-a-day lock-up.

At 11:10 am Michael Unger from the Manchester Evening News was allowed into the prison as an "independent observer". Unger met prisoners who described their grievances to him, which included mental

Psychological abuse

Psychological abuse, also referred to as emotional abuse or mental abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder...

and physical brutality

Physical abuse

Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...

, poor food and conditions, and misuse of drugs in controlling prisoners. While Unger was inside the prison twelve C&R units attempted to regain control of E wing, in what became known as the "battle for E wing". Prisoners built barricade

Barricade

Barricade, from the French barrique , is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction...

s and threw scaffolding poles at the C&R units, and after approximately thirty minutes the C&R units withdrew without regaining control of the wing. By the end of the third day of the riot prisoners still controlled the upper levels of the prison, but prison officers had regained control of the lower level, and a Home Office statement was issued:

During the course of the evening prison staff have had access at ground level to all wings in the main prison. No bodies have been found. Earlier today prison staff gained access to the main prison building in order to remove barricades to allow the surrender of inmates who wished to do so. No inmates were injured during this process. Nine prison staff were taken to outside hospital for treatment. Two remain overnight for observation. Negotiations were carried out by prison staff ... 31 inmates surrendered. All of those who surrendered have been interviewed, medically examined and fed. They will be transferred to other accommodation as soon as practicable.

On 4 April, Governor O'Friel spoke to the press for the first time, describing the riot as "an explosion of evil which was quite terrible to see". Also that day the Prison Officers Association

Prison Officers Association

The POA: The Professional Trades Union for Prison, Correctional and Secure Psychiatric Workers is a trade union in the United Kingdom "for prison, correctional and secure psychiatric workers." It currently has a membership of 33,500...

claimed that Rule 43(a) prisoners were being treated in North Manchester General Hospital for castration

Castration

Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...

wounds, which was repeated by sections of the press despite being categorically denied by the hospital's public relations officer and consultant-in-charge. 29 prisoners surrendered during the day leaving 26 prisoners inside the prison, 11 of whom had been identified by the Prison Service

Her Majesty's Prison Service

Her Majesty's Prison Service is a part of the National Offender Management Service of the Government of the United Kingdom tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales...

. Two more prisoners surrendered on 5 April, the same day as the Home Office announced a public inquiry

Public inquiry

into the riot headed by Lord Woolf

Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf

. Also that day a prison officer died in hospital; he had not been injured during the riot and suffered from a long-standing medical condition. By this time plans to retake the entire prison by force had been scrapped due to the likelihood of fatalities among prisoners or prison officers. That evening the police and prison officers introduced new tactics designed to weaken the resolve of the prisoners and to prevent them from sleeping. Loud music was played, lights were shone at the roof, and prison officers banged on their riot shield

Riot shield

Riot shields are lightweight protection devices deployed by police and some military organizations. Most are a clear polycarbonate, though some are constructed of light metals with a view hole. Riot shields are almost exclusively long enough to cover an average sized man from the top of the head to...

s and shouted at the prisoners, including calling them "beasts".

The rooftop protest was watched by a crowd of onlookers and supporters outside the prison. Various political groups also attended in support of the prisoners, including anarchist group Class War

Class War

Class War is a UK class struggle based group and newspaper originally set up by Ian Bone and others in 1983. It subsequently mutated various forms, becoming specifically anarchist....

, the Revolutionary Communist Group, and the Prisoners' League Association. On 6 April Paul Taylor attempted to shout out the prisoners' demands to the crowd gathered below, but he was drowned out by police sirens. Taylor and other prisoners responded by unfurling a banner which read "We fight and stand firm on behalf of humanity". On 9 April, The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...

newspaper called for an end to the riot, saying "Jail riot scum must be crushed", and former prisoner John McVicar

John McVicar

John McVicar is a British journalist and one-time convicted armed robber.-Career:In the 1960s, he was an armed robber who was tagged "Public Enemy No. 1" by Scotland Yard. He was apprehended and given a 23-year jail sentence. He escaped from prison on several occasions and after his final...

called for the retaking of the prison by force at the earliest possible opportunity. By 10 April more prisoners had surrendered, leaving thirteen inside the prison. Three more prisoners surrendered the following day, one of whom, Barry Morton, had taken part in the rooftop protest on 26 March. On 16 April, another three prisoners surrendered when they became ill with food poisoning.

Local businesses were calling for an end to the riot due to the disruption caused, including the closure of roads around the prison. A leather-jacket

Leather jacket

A leather jacket is a type of clothing—a jacket-length coat—usually worn on top of other apparel, and made from the tanned hide of various animals. The leather material is typically dyed black, or various shades of brown, but a wide range of colors is possible...

retailer based 400 yards from the prison claimed they had lost £20,000 in revenue since the riot had begun. Greater Manchester Police

Greater Manchester Police

Greater Manchester Police is the police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England...

asked for £2 million to cover the costs of policing the riot, which it described as the "most savage incident of its kind ever experienced within the British prison service". On 17 April the remaining seven prisoners began negotiations to attempt to bring the rooftop protest to an end. Negotiation

Negotiation

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy...

s took place inside the prison between two Home Office officials and prisoner Alan Lord, who was negotiating on behalf of the remaining prisoners. On 23 April, Lord was captured by a C&R unit while on his way to meet the negotiators. Mark Williams—one of the remaining prisoners—later described his reactions to the negotiations and Lord's capture:

David Bell, the Home Office negotiator, kept contradicting himself, as if in a bid to prolong the negotiations. He would agree to our terms, then he would try and tell us it was out of his hands, and go back on his word. If it was out of the Home Officer's hands—then whose hands was it in? I think the final stages were messed around by the Home Office so that our protest could help to divert the public's attention from the Poll Tax revolt that was going on throughout the country. As Alan Lord was snatched after being asked to negotiate on behalf of us all, this made us all more defiant about ending the protest.

Following the capture of Lord, the remaining prisoners agreed that 25 April would be the final day of the protest. Prison officers entered the prison early in the morning and gradually began to occupy the upper landings. At 10:20 am one of the remaining prisoners, a seventeen-year-old on remand for joyriding

Joyride (crime)

To joyride is to drive around in a stolen car, boat, or other vehicle with no particular goal, a ride taken solely for pleasure.In English law, joyriding is not considered to be theft, because the intention to "permanently deprive" the owner of the vehicle cannot be proven...

, was captured leaving five prisoners remaining on the roof. When prison officers reached the roof they put up a sign similar to the ones used by prisoners throughout the protest, which read "HMP in charge—no visits". At 6:20 pm the remaining five prisoners were removed from the roof in a "cherry picker

Cherry picker

A cherry picker , is a type of aerial work platform that consists of a platform or bucket at the end of a hydraulic lifting system.- Design :...

" hydraulic platform, giving clenched fist salutes to the press and public as they descended. During the course of the 25-day riot, the longest in British penal history, 147 prison officers and 47 prisoners had been injured.

Disturbances at other prisons

The Strangeways riot caused a number of protests at prisons across England, Scotland and Wales, described as either solidarity actions or copycat

Copycat crimes

A copycat crime is a criminal act that is modelled or inspired by a previous crime that has been reported in the media or described in fiction.-Copycat effect:...

riots. Approximately 100 remand prisoners at HM Prison Hull

Hull (HM Prison)

staged a sit-down protest in the exercise yard on 1 April, after hearing about the Strangeways riot on the radio. Disturbances occurred the same day at HM Prison Gartree

Gartree (HM Prison)

HM Prison Gartree is a Category B men's prison, located in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England. Gartree is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

, HM Prison Kirkham

Kirkham (HM Prison)

HM Prison Kirkham is a Category D men's prison, located southwest of Kirkham in Lancashire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-RAF Kirkham:...

and HM Prison Rochester

Rochester (HM Prison)

HM Prison Rochester is a male Young Offenders Institution, located in the Borstal area of Rochester in Kent, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is located next to HMP Cookham Wood....

, although the Gartree protest had started three days earlier over conditions in the prison. There were minor disturbances at HM Prison Lindholme

Lindholme (HM Prison)

HM Prison Lindholme is a Category C men's prison and Immigration Removal Centre, located near Hatfield Woodhouse in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England...

, HM Prison Low Newton

Low Newton (HM Prison)

HM Prison Low Newton is a Closed prison for female adults and young offenders. The prison is located in the village of Brasside in County Durham, England. Low Newton is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service...

and HM Prison Bedford

Bedford (HM Prison)

HMP Bedford is a Category B men's prison, located in the Harpur area of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

on 2 April, HM Prison Durham

Durham (HM Prison)

HM Prison Durham is a local Category B men's prison, located in the Elvet area of Durham in County Durham, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

, HM Prison Winchester

HMP Winchester

HM Prison Winchester is a Category B men's prison, located in Winchester, Hampshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

and HM Prison Wandsworth

Wandsworth (HM Prison)

HM Prison Wandsworth is a Category B men's prison at Wandsworth in the London Borough of Wandsworth, south west London, England. It is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service and is the largest prison in London and one of the largest in western Europe, with similar capacity to Liverpool...

on 4 April, and HM Young Offenders Institute Glen Parva

Glen Parva (HM Prison)

HM Prison Glen Parva is a male juvenile's prison and Young Offenders Institution, located in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. Glen Parva is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

on 6 April.

The weekend of 7 April and 8 April saw protests across the prison system. At HM Prison Leeds

Leeds (HM Prison)

HM Prison Leeds is a Category B men's prison, in the Armley area of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, which opened in 1847. Leeds Prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is still known locally as Armley Gaol , the historical name for the prison.-History:Construction of Leeds Prison ...

there was a sit-down protest after the arrival of over 100 prisoners who had been transferred from Strangeways. At HM Prison Dartmoor

Dartmoor (HM Prison)

HM Prison Dartmoor is a Category C men's prison, located in Princetown, high on Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. Its high granite walls dominate this area of the moor...

, between 100 and 120 prisoners wrecked D wing of the prison, and 12 prisoners also protested on the roof of C wing unfurling a banner that read "Strangeways, we are with you". 32 prisoners from Dartmoor were transferred to HM Prison Bristol

Bristol (HM Prison)

HMP Bristol is a Category B men's prison, located in the Horfield area of Bristol. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

, where there was another major protest following their arrival. Up to 400 prisoners took over three wings of the prison, and held control of them for two days. 130 prisoners at HM Prison Cardiff

Cardiff (HM Prison)

HM Prison Cardiff is a Category B men's prison, located in the Adamsdown area of Cardiff, Wales. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

destroyed cells, a twenty-hour rooftop protest took place at HM Prison Stoke Heath

Stoke Heath (HM Prison)

HM Prison Stoke Heath is a male juveniles prison and Young Offenders Institution, located in the village of Stoke Heath in Shropshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

, and disturbances occurred at HM Prison Brixton

Brixton (HM Prison)

HM Prison Brixton is a local men's prison, located in Brixton area of the London Borough of Lambeth, in inner-South London, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

, HM Prison Pentonville

Pentonville (HM Prison)

HM Prison Pentonville is a Category B/C men's prison, operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not actually within Pentonville itself, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury area of the London Borough of Islington, in inner-North London,...

, HM Prison Stafford and HM Prison Shepton Mallet

Shepton Mallet (HM Prison)

HMP Shepton Mallet, sometimes known as Cornhill, is a prison located in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. It is the United Kingdom's oldest operating prison.Shepton Mallet is a Category C Lifer Prison and holds 186 prisoners...

. A second protest took place at HM Prison Hull, where 110 prisoners staged a sit-down protest in the exercise yard.

Prisoners smashed windows at HM Prison Verne

Verne (HM Prison)

HM Prison The Verne is a Category C men's prison, located in the Verne Citadel on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service-History:...

on 9 April, and 40 prisoners held a prison officer hostage for twenty-four hours after taking over a hall at HM Prison Shotts on 10 April. On 12 April, two teenage remand prisoners at HM Prison Swansea

Swansea (HM Prison)

HM Prison Swansea is a Category B/C men's prison, located in the Sandfields area of Swansea, Wales. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is colloquially known as 'Cox's farm', after a former governor.-History:...

barricaded themselves into their cell for seventeen hours, and on 22 April between 80 and 100 remand prisoners staged an eighteen-hour rooftop protest at HM Prison Pucklechurch.

Media reaction

On 2 April newspapers reported a weekend of "anti-authority violence", as in addition to the Strangeways riot the Poll Tax Riot

Poll Tax Riots

The UK Poll Tax Riots were a series of mass disturbances, or riots, in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge , introduced by the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...

had occurred in London on 31 March. Reports of the violence at Strangeways included kangaroo court

Kangaroo court

A kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or...

s, hangings, castrations and that between eleven and twenty prisoners had been killed. On 3 April the front page of the Daily Mirror read "Prison Mob 'Hang Cop' ", and claimed a former policeman imprisoned at Strangeways for rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

had been killed by prisoners. The newspaper was forced to publish a retraction admitting that "reliable police sources" had been mistaken, when it transpired that the man was actually alive and imprisoned in HM Prison Leeds

Leeds (HM Prison)

. Following the end of the rooftop protest the newspapers condemned the prisoners, with The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

describing the riot as "a degrading public spectacle", and The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

describing the rioters as "dangerous and unstable criminals enjoying an orgy of destruction". The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

urged the government to institute reforms, a view which was the prevalent one for a time, stating:

Initially, the riot appeared to increase public support for radical reform of the present degrading prison system. Some of that goodwill will have been eroded by the antics of the rioters in the last two weeks, and may be further eroded once details emerge during the forthcoming criminal prosecutions. But this must not deflect Home Office ministers from the road down which they had belatedly begun to travel. A change in prison conditions is crucial if good order is to be restored to the system.

In its last act before disbanding in 1991 and being replaced by the Press Complaints Commission

Press Complaints Commission

The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines...

, the Press Council

Press Council (newspaper watchdog)

The Press Council was a British voluntary press organisation founded under threat of statutory regulation as the General Council in 1953, with a non-binding regulatory framework. Through most of its history the Council was funded by newspaper proprietors, with the stated aim of maintaining high...

produced a comprehensive report into the press coverage during the Strangeways riot. The report stated that "many of the more gruesome events report in the press had not occurred – nobody had been systematically mutilated, there had been no castrations, no bodies had been chopped up and flushed in the sewers. Though there was inter-prisoner violence in the first hours of the riot, torture on the scale suggested by many of the early reports did not take place." It further found that press coverage "fell into the serious ethical error of presenting speculation and unconfirmed reports as fact".

The Woolf Report

A five-month public inquiry was held into the disturbances at Strangeways and other prisons, beginning in Manchester on 11 June 1990 and ending in London on 31 October. In addition to the public inquiry, Lord Woolf

Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf

and Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons is the head of HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the senior inspector of prisons, young offender institutions and immigration service detention and removal centres in England and Wales...

, Stephen Tumim

Stephen Tumim

Sir Stephen Tumim was an English judge, and was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons from 1987 to 1995.Tumim was the son of a barrister, and was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and Worcester College, Oxford...

, also sent letters to every prisoner and prison officer in the country. 1,300 prisoners and 430 prison officers responded, with many excerpts from the letters being appended to the finished report. The Woolf Report was published on 25 February 1991, and blamed the loss of control of the prison on the prison officers abandoning the gates outside the chapel, which "effectively handed the prison to the prisoners". Woolf described the conditions inside Strangeways in the months leading up to the riot as "intolerable", and viewed a "combination of errors" by staff and management at the prison and Prison Service as a central contributing factor to the riot. He also blamed the failure of successive governments to "provide the resources to the Prison Service which were needed to enable the Service to provide for an increased prison population in a humane manner". Woolf recommended major reform of the Prison Service, and made 12 key recommendations with 204 accompanying proposals. The key recommendations were:

Closer cooperation between the different parts of the Criminal Justice System. For this purpose a national forum and local committees should be established.
More visible leadership of the Prison Service by a Director General who is and is seen to be the operational head and in day to day charge of the Service. To achieve this there should be a published "compact" or "contract" given by Ministers to the Director General of the Prison Service, who should be responsible for the performance of that "contract" and publicly answerable for the day to day operations of the Prison Service.
Increased delegation of responsibility to Governors of establishments.
An enhanced role for prison officers.
A "compact" or "contract" for each prisoner setting out the prisoner's expectations and responsibilities in the prison in which he or she is held
A national system of Accredited Standards, with which, in time, each prison establishment would be required to comply.
A new Prison Rule that no establishment should hold more prisoners that is provided for it its certified normal level of accommodation, with provisions for Parliament to be informed if exceptionally there is to be a material departure from that rule.
A public commitment from Ministers setting a timetable to provide access to sanitation for all inmates at the earliest practical date, not later than February 1996.
Better prospects for prisoners to maintain their links with families and the community through more visits and home leaves and through being located in community prisons as near to their homes as possible.
A division of prison establishments into small and more manageable and secure units.
A separate statement of purpose, separate conditions and generally a lower security categorisation for remand prisoners.
Improved standards of justice within prisons involving the giving of reasons to a prisoner for any decision which materially and adversely affects him; a grievance procedure and disciplinary proceedings which ensure that the Governor deals with most matters under his present powers; relieving Boards of Visitors of their adjudicatory role; and providing for final access to an independent Complaints Adjudicator.

The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

newspaper described the report as a blueprint for the restoration of "decency and justice into jails where conditions had become intolerable". Home Secretary

Home Secretary

The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...

Kenneth Baker

Kenneth Wilfred Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking, CH, PC , is a British politician, a former Conservative MP and a Life Member of the Tory Reform Group.-Early life:...

welcomed the Woolf Report and pledged to end "slopping out" by 1994, and also accepted Woolf's recommendations for more visits, home leave and telephone calls. In contrast to his proposed reforms, Baker also proposed the introduction of a new offence of "prison mutiny" carrying a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment, stating "The events of last April marked a watershed in the history of prison service. We cannot, and will not, tolerate the savagery and vandalism in our prisons that we saw then".

Prosecutions

The first prosecutions in relation to the riot began at Manchester Crown Court

Crown Court

The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...

on 14 January 1992. The trial was conducted amid tight security, including armed police patrolling the area around the court, body searches for spectators and a specially constructed dock with sides made from bulletproof glass

Bulletproof glass

Bulletproof glass is a type of strong but optically transparent material that is particularly resistant to being penetrated when struck by bullets, but is not completely impenetrable. It is usually made from a combination of two or more types of glass, one hard and one soft...

. Nine men went on trial charged with riot under Section 1 of the Public Order Act 1986

Public Order Act 1986

The Public Order Act 1986 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of public order offences. They replace similar common law offences and parts of the Public Order Act 1936...

, with six of them, including Paul Taylor and Alan Lord, also being charged with the murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

of Derek White.

On the first day one prisoner pleaded guilty

Guilty

Guilty commonly refers to the feeling of guilt, an experience that occurs when a person believes that they have violated a moral standard.Guilty or The Guilty may also refer to:-Law:*Guilty plea, a formal admission of legal culpability...

to charges of riot and conspiracy to riot, and was also acquitted of the murder charge. The other defendants were also acquitted of murder due to the unreliability of eyewitness testimony

Eyewitness testimony

Research in eyewitness testimony is mostly considered a subfield within legal psychology, however it is a field with very broad implications. Human reports are normally based on visual perception, which is generally held to be very reliable...

and the possibility that White had died from a pre-existing thrombotic

Thrombosis

Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel is injured, the body uses platelets and fibrin to form a blood clot to prevent blood loss...

condition. On 16 April, four defendants including Paul Taylor were convicted of rioting, and the remaining four including Alan Lord were acquitted.

Taylor received a ten-year sentence, the maximum sentence the judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

had the power to impose. The sentences received by the other defendants ranged from four years to nine-and-a-half years imprisonment. By the end of the trial the total cost of the Strangeways riot, including refurbishing the prison and the costs of the police inquiry and court case, had reached £112 million.

The second trial began at the same court on 5 October 1992, and dealt with charges relating to the "battle for E wing" on 3 April 1990. There were fourteen defendants, including Alan Lord and another man who was acquitted in the first trial, both of whom were added to the list of defendants after their acquittal

Acquittal

In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...

s. Two defendants pleaded guilty to violent disorder

Violent Disorder

Violent disorder is a statutory offence in England and Wales. It is created by of the Public Order Act 1986. Sections 2 to of that Act provide:...

and received four- and five-year sentences, which due to the two years they had spent on remand awaiting trial resulted in them being freed.

The remaining twelve defendants pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm

Grievous bodily harm

Grievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861....

with intent and conspiracy to riot. On 7 December 1992 David Bowen and Mark Azzopardi escaped from the prison van transferring them from HM Prison Hull

Hull (HM Prison)

to the court. Azzopardi was recaptured, before escaping from the court on 17 February 1993 along with five of the other defendants.

At the conclusion of the trial two defendants were acquitted and the remainder found guilty of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm with intent, the lesser charge of conspiracy to riot automatically being dropped when guilty verdicts were announced on the first charge. When passing sentence, the judge remarked "You had your period of arrogance and violence in front of the world, but now the price must be paid and paid by you". The defendants received sentences ranging from four years to ten years imprisonment, although only five defendants were in court to hear the verdict as six defendants were still on the run after escaping and another was being treated at Ashworth Secure Hospital

Ashworth Hospital

Ashworth Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital at Maghull in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England.Ashworth is one of only three high-security specialist psychiatric hospitals in England and Wales, along with Rampton and Broadmoor, that exist to work with people who...

.

Following the second trial, a further 26 defendants were still due to be tried on charges relating to the riot. The Crown Prosecution Service

Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...

accepted plea bargain

Plea bargain

A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...

s where defendants pleaded guilty to violent disorder in exchange for the dropping of other charges, or in some cases all charges were dropped completely. On 20 September 1993 the last remaining defendant to maintain a plea of not guilty went on trial, and he was convicted of conspiracy to commit grevious bodily harm and sentenced to thirty months imprisonment.

On 18 March 1994, six prisoners appeared in court on charges of escaping from custody during the second riot trial. Five of them pleaded guilty to escaping from custody on one occasion, and Mark Azzopardi pleaded guilty to escaping on two occasions. Each was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment for escaping from Manchester Crown Court, and Azzopardi received an additional two-year sentence for escaping from the van transporting him from HM Prison Hull to the court. In July 1994, David Bowen was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice by attempting to influence the jury in the first riot trial, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment. Paul Taylor, who had already pleaded guilty to the same charge, also received a three-year sentence.

Aftermath

Strangeways was rebuilt and refurbished at a cost of £55 million, and was officially re-opened as HM Prison Manchester on 27 May 1994. The press were invited to view the new prison and talk to the prisoners by new governor Derek Lewis

Derek Lewis (prison governor)

Derek Lewis is a former Chief Executive and Director General of the British Prison Service, who was sacked by then Home Secretary Michael Howard after a prison scandal in 1995....

. A prisoner told the visiting journalists:

The better conditions in here are not down to the prison department. But for the riot, we would still be in the same old jail banged up all day and slopping out ... The rioters brought this about. These conditions ... should not have cost the lives of a prisoner, a prison officer and two huge court trials. They should have done it years ago but it took a riot to get them to do it.

"Slopping out

Slopping out

" was abolished in England and Wales by 1996, and was scheduled to be abolished in Scotland by 1999. Due to budget restraints the abolishment was delayed, and by 2004 prisoners in five of Scotland's sixteen prisons still had to "slop out". "Slopping out" ended in HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont

Polmont (HM Prison)

Her Majesty's Young Offenders Institution Polmont is the largest of its kind in Scotland. Despite its name, the institution is located in Reddingmuirhead in the Falkirk region, and not in Polmont....

in 2007, leaving HM Prison Peterhead

HMP Peterhead

HMP Peterhead is a prison in the town of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.Peterhead convict prison was built around August 1888, and was designed to hold 208 prisoners. It was to be Scotland's only convict prison Occupancy averaged at around 350 however, until peaking at 455 in 1911...

as the last prison where prisoners do not have access to proper sanitation, as 300 prisoners are forced to use chemical toilet

Chemical toilet

A chemical toilet is a toilet which uses chemicals to deodorize the waste instead of simply storing it in a hole, or piping it away to a sewage treatment plant. Common types include aircraft lavatory, some passenger train toilets and the portable toilets used on construction sites and at large...

s due to the difficulty of installing modern plumbing in the prison's granite structure.

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