The Fremantle prison riot was a 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....

 that occurred on 4 January 1988 at Fremantle Prison

Fremantle Prison

Fremantle Prison is a former Australian prison located in The Terrace, Fremantle, in Western Australia. The site includes the prison, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, tunnels, and prisoner art...

, in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. The riot was organised as a diversion for an escape that was to take place. Prisoners created a fire as part of the diversion, and temperatures inside the cells were recorded at 52.2 °C (126 °F). 3 division and 4 division were taken over by a total of seventy prisoners, and 15 officer

Prison officer

A prison officer , also referred to as a corrections officer , correctional officer , or detention officer , is a person charged with the responsibility of the supervision, safety and security of prisoners in a prison, jail, or similar form of secure...

s were taken hostage. The fire caused $1.8 million in damage and unintentionally prevented the planned escape.

Fremantle Prison was built using convict labour during the 1850s, based on the design of Pentonville Gaol

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,...

, and was used as the maximum security prison for male offenders in Western Australia. During the 1890s the size of the cells were doubled by removing a join wall between two cells. The conditions in the cells remained unchanged except for lighting and basic toilet facilities. The prison population was divided into 4 divisions; 3 division housing violent prisoners and 4 division housing murderers and those serving long term sentences.

It was suggested that the riot and fire was staged as a diversion by twelve men including Brenden Abbott

Brenden Abbott

Brenden James Abbott is an Australian bank robber who was branded the Postcard Bandit by the Western Australian Police to attract news media attention...

, to assist a mass escape from the prison. During the two weeks prior to the riot they collected 3 litres of fuel from lawnmowers, which they managed to conceal in their drink bottles.

The riot

Just before 4:00 pm two prisoners were brought in from the exercise yards in 3 division to deliver tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 and hot water to the cells as the other inmates were locked away. Two twenty-five litre drums of boiling water were stationed on the top floor above the gates, which was perfectly normal. Five officers were stationed in the division on this day, and as two officers opened the gates to let the prisoners in, fifty litres of boiling water was poured on their heads. At that moment, seventy violent prisoners from division three rushed in through the gates and quickly overpowered the officers, locking them in the yards. The prisoners now had the cell keys, and made their way to the top floor, opening every cell and throwing down anything removable and combustible, and piled it up at the doorway at the end of the division.

A fire was lit which soon became much bigger than anticipated, with flames reaching the roof. The roof was the original jarrah

Jarrah

Eucalyptus marginata is one of the most common species of Eucalyptus tree in the southwest of Western Australia. The tree and the wood are usually referred to by the Aboriginal name Jarrah...

 timber built 140 years prior, and before long half of the third division and all of the fourth division was a raging inferno that could be seen from Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

. Images were broadcast live across national television. Camera crews in helicopters filmed the chaos as the prison roof collapsed. From the air it appeared as if no efforts were being made to extinguish the fire; efforts were being made but the main gates were made in 1850 by convict

Convict

A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...

s and were too narrow to get fire engines through. The fire continued for nineteen hours until it was brought under control.

After the fire was under control, the prisoners negotiated a trade of the prison officers for food and to return control of the prison back to the guards. Although 15 officers were injured (two of them seriously), nobody was killed.

Aftermath

In February 1988 a report into the causes of the riot was prepared. The report suggested that little evidence supported the escape plan theory common in the media, but that the riot was largely the result of an incident of that morning involving the mistreatment of a prisoner and his subsequent release into three division yard.

Total damage to the prison amounted to $1.8 million, including the cost of restoring the roof to its original condition. The riot highlighted the poor conditions inside the jail and two years later the prison was closed with most prisoners being transferred to the new Casuarina Prison

Casuarina Prison

Casuarina Prison is the main maximum security prison for Western Australia, located near Perth. The prison accommodates minimum, medium and maximum security prisoners and was opened in 1991 to replace Fremantle Prison...

. The prison was turned into a tourist attraction which is now nationally heritage listed.

A trial was held at a cost of $3 million and 33 men were charged. The twelve ring leaders were given six years on top of their current sentences, two of those in near solitary conditions

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...

; one, armed robber, Brenden Abbott successfully escaped from Fremantle prison in 1989 and spent five and a half years on the run before being caught in Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

.

The prison was decommissioned on 8 November 1991.