Latest news with #supermax
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘Supermax' prisons could house Britain's worst criminals
Britain's most dangerous prisoners face a US-style 'supermax' prison regime after a string of violent attacks on officers. Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has ordered a review into ways of segregating dangerous offenders including Islamist terrorists after an armed attack last month on three officers by the Manchester Arena bomber's brother in HMP Frankland, County Durham. She has asked Jonathan Hall, KC, the head of the review, to look at the 'human consequences' of segregating prisoners in such a way that it reduces the risk of violence to 'near zero'. The three options include creating a 'bespoke' regime such as that found at ADX Florence in Colorado, which holds prisoners who are so great a risk that they cannot be housed even in maximum security prisons. The inmates are confined in single cells with facilities made of poured, reinforced concrete to deter self-harm. And they are under 24-hour supervision, carried out intensively with high staff–inmate ratios. The move follows calls by the Prison Officers' Association (POA) for supermax jails in the UK. The jails could see offenders allowed out of their cells only while handcuffed to three officers, and provided with a basic food and exercise regime. Last month Hashem Abedi, 28, who is serving life for 22 murders in the Manchester Arena bomb, attacked three prison officers with two makeshift knives and boiling cooking oil in a special separation unit for Islamist extremists in HMP Frankland. Two suffered life-threatening injuries. At the weekend, Southport killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly used a kettle to pour boiling water over an officer at HMP Belmarsh in south London where he is currently being held. This week, The Telegraph revealed a prison officer was slashed across his neck by an inmate wielding an improvised knife at HMP Woodhill, in Milton Keynes, which houses one of three separation units for extremist or dangerous prisoners. Ms Mahmood has already ordered a rapid review into whether prison officers should be issued with stab vests to protect them, and a trial to train and equip selected jail staff with Tasers. Access to kitchen facilities in separation centres was suspended after Abedi's attack. The review by Mr Hall, who is the independent reviewer of terror legislation for the Government, will consider whether the current system of three separation centres is effective, or whether there are additional risks of physical attack or reinforcing extremist beliefs from segregating them in that way. It reads: 'Are there additional risks of harm associated with the type of prisoner likely to be held in a separation centre, for example, one subject to a long or indeterminate sentence with nothing to lose; or one who may seek to continue a terrorism career within prison.' Mr Hall will also consider whether there should be greater use of segregation cells within a separation centre or greater use of close supervision centres. Announcing Mr Hall's appointment, Ms Mahmood said: 'Alongside considering the facts of the incident, the review will look into the operation of Separation Centres and whether they are fit for purpose. 'I have asked for the review to report back promptly, and to leave no stone unturned so we can prevent such an incident ever happening again.' Steve Gillan, POA general secretary, said: 'Escalating levels of violence are out of control in the prison service in England and Wales. It appears that [the Prison Service] have learned nothing. They continue to ignore the calls from our members on the front line for urgent action to protect Prison Officers from violence. 'It is clear that prison regimes must be reviewed as a matter of urgency. We need action to protect Prison Officers before there is a fatality.' 'My thoughts are with the Prison Officers who have been injured, the POA will offer them our full support.' Some 10,605 assaults on staff in male and female jails were recorded in 2024, up from 9,204 in 2023 and nearly three times the 3,640 in 2014.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Bring US-style supermax prisons to the UK: Demands for Britain's worst offenders and terrorists to be locked up 23 hours a day without cushy perks
Britain's most dangerous prisoners should be kept in US-style 'super-max' prisons, the head of the prison officers' union demanded after another violent attack behind bars. Mark Fairhurst called for the American model, which isolates violent inmates - locking them in their cells for 23 hours a day - to be introduced before it's too late. 'The authorities need to act before there is a tragedy.' Mr Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers' Association, which represents rank and file staff warned. 'Super-max' conditions would only allow the worst inmates to leave their cell for an hour of exercise a day. In practice, they would be banned from associating with other prisoners, using cooking facilities and equipment, and escorted while handcuffed by three staff when they leave their cell. The warning follows an assault at Belmarsh high security prison when Southport triple killer Axel Rudakubana allegedly threw boiling water at a guard. It is understood the 18-year-old was able to boil the water in a kettle in his cell and throw it through a hatch. The attack came just weeks after Manchester Arena terrorist Hashem Abedi, 28, fashioned two 20cm-blades from baking trays and threw boiling oil over three guards in a Separation Centre (SC) at HMP Frankland in County Durham, which houses a small number of the most radical terrorists. One male officer was stabbed in the neck, with the blade coming close to severing an artery. Another male officer was stabbed at least five times in the back, puncturing a lung. One of their female colleagues was also injured. Counter-terror police are investigating how the attack was planned. One line of enquiry is said to focus on what role, if any, notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary played in the 'ambush'. Prison officers believe Choudary – described as the 'Daddy' of the SC in Frankland where he is serving 28 years, and one of the first extremists to have been placed in the centre in 2017 – might have encouraged Abedi to carry out the attack. In 2022, Choudary explained how SCs actually benefit extremist inmates. 'Practising Muslims who go to prison want to spend their time with fellow Muslims, and they don't want to be constantly looking over their shoulder,' he said. 'This creates an ideal scenario for them – being placed with like-minded individuals – where they can collectively ignore the prison infrastructure entirely.' In 2023, Denny De Silva, a drug-dealing murderer, who converted to Islam upon being jailed was moved to an SC. De Silva, who is described as an 'extremist enforcer' who 'influences and incites' other Muslim prisoners wherever he goes, launched a legally aided court battle in which he claimed his human rights had been breached. Located along a single short corridor, the SC includes cells with sound-blocking glass 'bafflers' to prevent the men inside from radicalising inmates on other wings. But De Silva's High Court hearing revealed that he still had access to the gym and library, he complained his time there was 'limited' – as was his use of a computer. He also complained about timetabled 'nutrition sessions' that didn't take place – instead he was given healthy-eating leaflets to read – while cooking classes failed to meet his expectations. The Frankland unit houses a TV room featuring a pool table and bookshelf, and while there are no fitness facilities, staff can arrange for inmates to visit the main prison gym and they are entitled to five hours out of their cells on weekends. The inmates can also access a kitchen area, which Abedi - who helped his brother Salman plan the Manchester Arena bombing - used to source and heat the cooking oil and fashion his makeshift blades. Former prison officer Neil Samworth, said the way dangerous terrorists like Abedi were being managed was 'madness'. 'The fact that Abedi had access to all the kitchen facilities is hard to comprehend, but typical of the way prisons are run today,' he told MailOnline. 'The staff are not safe on these wings.' In the US, the only federally run 'super-max' prison is ADX Florence in Colorado, nicknamed the Alcatraz of the Rockies. Inmates are strictly controlled and additional penalties are imposed if they break any rules. They include a large number of British terrorists, including Abu Hamza, the hook-handed preacher from Finsbury Park mosque, north London; Richard Reid, the airline shoe-bomber; and the 'Isis Beatles', Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh. 'For the most violent, dangerous criminals who are intent on committing atrocities and attacking staff, the time has come for control and containment,' Mr Fairhurst told The Sunday Times. 'This cohort of prisoners should not enjoy the same privileges and freedoms as those who do conform.' In Britain, serious assaults on prison officers increased 19 per cent in a year according to Home Office figures. Professor Acheson, who led an independent review of Islamist extremism in prisons, called on the Prison Service to put staff protection above prisoners' rights. He said: 'A prisoner having a kettle is not a human right, especially when it could be used as a weapon by somebody who is dangerous. 'There is a forest of red flags accompanying this wretched young man and, given that, I cannot see any reason why he would have been provided with anything other than food and drink delivered to his cell, because the risk he poses is serious and very obvious. 'There has been a recent escalation in violent attacks and it is reasonable to conclude that we are closer to the murder of a prison officer on duty than ever before. That is a real and significant prospect and is one which the Prison Service is ignoring. 'The balance has become completely skewed, particularly at Belmarsh, in favour of the rights of prisoners against the harm they might pose to prison officers. 'That balance is dangerously out of whack and needs to be restored.' It is believed that Rudakubana was in a cell in Belmarsh's healthcare centre when the attack happened. A prison source said it was 'unsurprising' he was in that wing because the nature of his crime and his life sentence would put him at high risk of self-harm. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'Violence in prison will not be tolerated and we will always push for the strongest possible punishment for attacks on our hardworking staff.' But former prison governor Professor Acheson branded the statement as 'delusional, hopeless boiler plate rubbish' adding: 'Not only is it tolerated, it is normalised. 'People running the Prison Service always talk about overcrowding, but none of these high security prisons are overcrowded – none of them. Something else is going on. 'And I believe that something else is the completely inappropriate appeasement of very dangerous prisoners by leadership who are effectively throwing their frontline staff under the bus.' When Abedi, jailed for life for helping his brother carry out the 2017 suicide bombing, attacked the prison officers at Frankland, they were equipped with only extendable batons and cans of incapacitant spray. He was moved to Belmarsh and is being held in the same segregation unit as Rudakubana. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'The Met is investigating after a prison officer was subject to a serious assault at HMP Belmarsh.'
Times
11-05-2025
- Times
Demand for ‘super-max' prisons for worst inmates
Britain's most dangerous prisoners should be kept in US-style 'super-max' conditions with no contact with other inmates and no kettles or cooking facilities, according to the head of the prison officers' union. The demand came after Axel Rudakubana, the Southport killer, is alleged to have thrown boiling water at a prison guard at HMP Belmarsh, southwest London, which is meant to be one of the country's most secure jails. Rudakubana, 18, who murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January. He is suspected of boiling the water in a kettle in his cell and flinging it at the officer through the door's hatch. The guard was treated in hospital and discharged. The
