10:18am Wednesday 20th August 2008
By Mark Tallentire
A NORTH-EAST jail that houses some of the UK’s most dangerous prisoners and terrorists has been accused of not doing enough to deal with racial tension.
Safety at the high-security Frankland jail, near Durham City, was “drifting worryingly”, according to a report from Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, which is published today.
Earlier this month, nine inmates at Frankland, the majority Muslim, rioted, causing damage worth £20,000.
One prison officer suffered ligament damage to his hand.
In June, a brawl involving 12 prisoners left two inmates and four officers with injuries.
And last year, Eesa Barot, who plotted to murder thousands of people with radioactive dirty bombs, spent five days in hospital after being scalded with boiling oil.
Lawyer Muddassar Arani, who represents Barot, said the prison had a “white supremacist” culture.
In the report, which follows an inspection in February, Ms Owers said that black and ethnic minority prisoners:
● Felt particularly unsafe;
● Were over-represented in disciplinary procedures, use of force, segregation and adjudications.
She also said there were 300 reports of racist incidents last year, although few were eventually found to have a racist element.
The report also revealed:
● There was no evidence of a robust violence reduction strategy, “essential” to ensuring safety, order and control;
● Prisoner-on-prisoner violence was high, as were positive drug tests;
● There was insufficient management scrutiny of race issues.
Imran Hussain, head of policy at the Prison Reform Trust, described the criticisms of Frankland as worrying.
He said: “This has been a high-performing prison and the drift the inspector identifies in terms of safety is particularly worrying.
“Often the problems around working with Muslim prisoners come out of misunderstanding and ignorance.
“The prison service has done a lot to address the issues around race. What this report flags up is it needs to be re-enforced.”
Andrew Neilson, assistant director of The Howard League for Penal Reform, urged the recruitment of more black and ethnic minority officers and improved training.
He said: “High-security prisons are having to adapt to a sudden increase in terrorist suspect prisoners. It’s a challenge, not just for Frankland, but for high-security prisons generally.
“There needs to be more training in diversity issues.
Staff feel that they can’t challenge prisoners about their behaviour without being seen as being racist.”
Frankland was without a governor when the inspectors arrived after the departure of Bob Mullen in February.
Former Wakefield prison governor David Thompson took over in April.
Ms Owers said: “Frankland’s population had become even more challenging recently, with increases in gang affiliations and the arrival of a small number of convicted terrorists. It is unfortunate that this coincided with the absence of a governor for some months, and the resulting drift that was observable at this inspection needs urgently to be reversed.
“This is particularly important as the prison expands to over 1,000 prisoners – far more than any dispersal prison has so far been required to hold.”
The Northern Echo requested an interview with Mr Thompson, but the Ministry of Justice refused.
In a statement, Phil Wheatley, director general of the National Offender Management Service, said: “I am concerned about the comments raised on the safety within Frankland. However, this should be seen in the context of Frankland’s extremely challenging population.
“The issues raised in the report are currently being addressed by the governor and staff at Frankland.
“The prison is fully committed towards equality for all prisoners, irrespective of their ethnic background or religious beliefs.”
Nick Herbert MP, Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary, said: “Once again we’re seeing evidence of a jail struggling with growing prisoner numbers, drugs misuse and racial problems, while having little focus on resettling offenders at the end of their sentence.
Frankland might house particularly serious criminals, but the problems it faces can be seen right across Britain’s overcrowded jails.”
Roberta Blackman-Woods, the Labour MP for Durham City, said she would meet the Frankland governor to see what assurances she could give to her constituents.
She said: “When you read the whole report you see it was quite a small number that felt they were unsafe. That’s not to say there isn’t a safety issue. But it seems to be particularly relevant for a small number of prisoners.”
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