Black prisoners are disproportionately subjected to the use of force inside one of Britain’s most notorious jails, a report has found.
The annual report of the Independent Monitoring Board, a statutory body that monitors the treatment of prisoners, found that from June 2022 to May 2023, black prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs were subjected to 43% of use-of-force incidents although they formed just 27% of the prison population.
White prisoners, who made up 42% of prisoners, were subjected to just 25% of such incidents. Asian prisoners, who formed 15% of the prison population, were subject to 12% of these incidents.
The Victorian prison, which was built between 1875 and 1891, has often made headlines because of its bad conditions and its high-profile inmates including Ian Brady, Peter Sutcliffe and the musicians Keith Richards and Pete Doherty. High-profile escapers from the facility include the Soviet spy George Blake in 1966.
According to the report, little action has been taken in relation to the disproportionate use of force.
Poor take-up and use of body-worn video cameras by staff is also an issue and use seems to improve only when there is a push by governors, “rapidly sliding back once attention is diverted”.
Drugs and other banned items are sent into the prison either by being thrown over the wall or by use of drones.
“The prison acknowledges that drugs of many types are easily accessible and plentiful,” the report states.
The proportion of remand prisoners can be as high as 70% and many prisoners are spending 22 or more hours a day locked in their cells. Some prisoners with serious mental illness were waiting more than 100 days for a transfer to a more suitable facility.
Three deaths were reported during the year, one apparently due to suicide, and self-harm incidents increased by more than 22% from 408 to 498.
There was a 51% increase in recorded assaults on staff, from 93 the previous year to 141.
Some of these assaults were attributed to tensions boiling over in the prison due to factors such as gang and debt issues on certain wings.
The report documents leaky roofs, broken showers and malfunctioning cell call bells and alarms, and found the prison’s infrastructure to be “brittle”.
One mother of a black prisoner claims that her son was restrained and beaten when he was about to be moved to another prison.
She told the Guardian: “He was beaten because he questioned how other prisoners were being treated as they were being prepared for the move. The whole thing was horrible,” she said. “It made me feel sick. His solicitors have lodged a formal complaint and requested the CCTV footage. My son is terrified of the prison officers. His mental health has deteriorated really badly following that incident.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Prison officers only use force as a last resort and we monitor its use carefully including for any disparities in the way it is deployed.
“Cells are only doubled up where it is safe to do so and we’re improving staff training to better support those at risk to self-harm and suicide. We’ve also invested £100m in tough security measures to clamp down on the contraband that fuels violence behind bars.”
