Express & Star comment: A catalyst for serious change at our prisons
Inspectors visiting HMP Birmingham have confirmed most people’s worst fears about what is going on inside our jails.
Rampant drug taking, wide-scale bullying and high rates of violence – in short the inmates appear, in some cases, to have taken over control from the officers.
It is absolutely 100 per cent right for the Government to have stepped in and taken control of the prison in Winson Green.
The question now must be asked, however – why did it take them so long?
After riots in 2016, the oversight and monitoring of this notorious prison should have been almost unrelenting and yet, incredibly, it appears to have deteriorated even from that violent low point.
Is Oakwood next? Concerns after G4S stripped of control of crisis-hit HMP Birmingham
It says everything you need to know that on the day of the inspectors’ unannounced visit there was an arson attack in a supposedly secure car park which destroyed not only staff cars but also those of the inspecting team as well.
Also on the same day, we are told the riot in 2016, which involved more than 500 prisoners, should have been prevented from escalating within 30 minutes.
