News Shorts and Other Busyness

Recipe For Prison Riots

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pg. 14.

Bedford Prison authorities have decided to suspend prisoners’ ‘free association’ period. The reason given to inmates for this dramatic change in their prison life was that, whilst the number of prisoners within the jail is rising, the number of prison officers is being cut back. As a consequence they say they can no longer police the two and-a-half hour evening recreational period.

Meanwhile, a whole series of measures introduced by Home Secretary Michael Howard has led to a record 52,000 inmates in UK prisons, a figure that penal system organisations say is likely to spiral further. Add to this the dramatic increases in the severity of prison regimes and sentencing, and a recipe for riot is fermenting.

According to John Boddington, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association: “It is prison staff who will have to bear the brunt of an increasingly violent prisoner population that are packed in like sardines, who have nothing to do and nothing to lose. The Home Secretary is sacrificing the long term effectiveness of the prison system for political ends.” Another alarming manoeuvre within UK prisons is Michael Howard’s insistence that drug tests are carried out more regularly. All 133 of British prisons are expected to be operating these tests by the end of March. Prisoners at Bedford Prison were told in January that there will be no tests for a 30-day amnesty period, after which random testing will occur on a daily basis.

The most immediate ramification of this move will be the increase in heroin use within prisons. Heroin is undetectable to drug testing equipment only a couple of days after use, cannabis on the other hand takes around 28 days to clear.

George Evatt, chairman of the Dartmoor Board of Visitors was quoted: “Who is worried about cannabis? It keeps things quiet after all and is the least damaging of the drugs. You are going to get people coming into prison for the first time who end up addicted to the hard stuff when they come out.”

Everyone with an inside knowledge of prison life knows that cannabis use is quite prevalent. Indeed some prison officers have recommended it to prisoners. Without it the recipe for riot will be even more explosive. Remember the name Michael Howard when it all goes off.