Latest news with #prisonViolence
BBC News
13-08-2025
- BBC News
Manchester Arena bomb plotter charged with prison guard attack
The brother of the man who carried out the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing has been charged with attempting to murder three prison officers and assaulting a fourth. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
Telegraph
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Attacks on prison officers by Muslim inmates double
The number of Muslim prisoners involved in attacks on officers has more than doubled in four years to nearly eight a day, official figures have revealed. The data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), published in the wake of the stabbing of three officers by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, show there were 2,916 attacks on staff by Muslim prisoners in 2024, up from 1,393 in 2020. Muslim prisoners accounted for more than a quarter of the 11,180 inmate attacks in 2024 – with a disproportionately higher number relative to their prison population in England and Wales. The 2,916 attacks on staff represented a rate of just over 18 assaults for every 100 members of the Muslim prison population, compared with 12.6 for the 4,955 assaults on staff by Christian prisoners. Prof Ian Acheson, a former prison governor who advised the Government on extremism in jails, said the general rise in violence was 'much more pronounced' among those who identified as Muslims. 'In my view, this is because of a general collapse of authority and order due to poor training, leadership, resourcing and overcrowding. There seems to be a more oppositional environment generally,' he said. 'But it is possible that the rise of Muslim gangs and their visibility across the high security prison estate, where there is a constant struggle for power and space has had an additional impact.' A 2023 report by the terrorism watchdog said the prison service had failed to recognise the dangers Islamist gangs posed in prisons. It added that prison staff were so concerned with being labelled as racist that Muslim terrorists had been able to seize control of wings and set up sharia courts behind bars. Prof Acheson said it was more important to record incidents by faith rather than religious affiliation to get to the root of extremism in jails, as he recommended in his report to the Government in 2016. Recent wave of violence In April, Hashem Abedi, 28, who is serving a 55-year sentence for 22 murders for his part in the Manchester Arena bombing, attacked three prison officers with two makeshift knives and boiling cooking oil in a special separation unit for Islamist extremists in HMP Frankland. Two officers suffered life-threatening injuries. In May, Axel Rudakubana, the man who killed three girls in Southport, allegedly used a kettle to pour boiling water over an officer at HMP Belmarsh in south London, where he is currently being held. Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has ordered a review into ways of segregating dangerous offenders including Islamist terrorists in the wake of the attacks. Data obtained by Maslaha, a Muslim charity, found prison officers were more likely to use force against Muslim inmates than other prisoners. The official figures, obtained through freedom of information requests, showed that prisoners in eight of the nine jails with high Muslim populations were more likely to be confronted with batons, made to wear rigid bar handcuffs or deliberately held in a painful position. The figures, which include Belmarsh, do not show whether the disproportionate use of force against Muslim prisoners by staff was a result of discrimination or because the inmates were worse behaved than others. Maslaha said it reflected a 'culture of Islamophobia and racism that runs through the prison system', but the POA, a trade union for prison staff, maintained officers only used force as a 'last resort' and in a 'proportionate and reasonable' way. An MoJ spokesman said: 'We take attacks on our hard-working staff incredibly seriously. The vast majority of attacks did not involve Muslim prisoners.' Moj sources said for all religions, the figures included attacks where there may be several prisoners involved, of whom some may not have directly assaulted an officer.
Sky News
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Minister does not rule out 'supermax' prisons for most dangerous offenders following alleged Rudakubana attack
"Supermax" prisons could be built to house the most dangerous offenders following a spate of alleged attacks on staff, the prisons minister has said. James Timpson told the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge that "we shouldn't rule anything out" when asked if the most dangerous criminals should be placed in top security prisons. It comes after Southport triple killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly threw boiling water from a kettle at an officer at HMP Belmarsh on Thursday. Police are now investigating. Before that, three prison officers were also allegedly attacked by 28-year-old Hashem Abedi - the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi - with hot cooking oil and "improvised knives", potentially made from a baking tray. Speaking from HMP Preston for a special programme of the Politics Hub, Mr Timpson said: "We inherited a complete mess in the prison system. He added: "What we need to do is to speak to our staff. They're the experts at dealing with these offenders day in, day out. " Mr Timpson - who was the chief executive of Timpson Group before he was appointed prisons minister last year - said the violence in prisons was "too high". 2:36 He continued: "The number of people when you have prisons are so full, and the people in there are not going to education or into purposeful activity. "You get more violence and that is totally unacceptable. Our staff turn up to work to help turn people. "They want to turn people's lives around. They didn't turn up to work to get assaulted. It's totally unacceptable." Reflecting on the crisis facing the UK prison system ahead of the government's sentencing review, Mr Timpson said a major problem was the high rate of reoffending, saying "80% of offending is reoffending". He said people were leaving places like HMP Preston "addicted to drugs, nowhere to live, mental health problems - and that's why they keep coming back". Asked whether every prison had a drugs issue, he replied: "100%". "If we want to keep the public safe, we need to do a lot more of the work in here and in the community. But also we need to build more prisons." Put to him that making more use of community sentences - thought to be one of the recommendations in the government's sentencing review - might be considered a "cushy option" compared to a custodial sentence, Mr Timpson said: "There are some people in this prison tonight who would prefer to be in prison than do a community sentence - but that's not everybody. "Community sentences need to be tough punishments outside of prison, not just to help them address their offending behaviour, but also the victims need to see punishments being done too and for me, technology has a big part to play in the future."
