• Home
• Order now
• Prices
• How we help
• Press
• Law marking
• Contact us
• Resources
• Log in

Free 2.1 Law Essay

What were the causes of the prison riot in Strangeways in 1991? Evaluate the response of the authorities to the criticisms which followed

The Strangeways Prison riot, arguably the most serious in British history, commenced on April 1 1990. At 11.00am a small group of inmates overpowered prison officers during the morning service in the prison chapel. A set of keys was seized by prisoners, who then gained access to many of the internal areas of the prison. Hundreds of prisoners took control of the main block. Staff retreated from the complex but managed to secure the perimeter of the facility. Prison reinforcements were urgently called in from jails in the Midlands. Meanwhile, inside Strangeways, fighting spread to involve approximately 1,100 of the 1,600 inmates and wide scale vandalism took place.

Fires broke out in the prison's H-block and elsewhere in the facility. Rioting prisoners gained access to the roofs, many wearing scarves across their faces, and tore off slates and chimney pots, filling the compounds below with debris. Among other defiant displays, a dummy dressed in the uniform of a prison officer was dangled on a rope from a gable in the chapel. The prisoners were able to communicate with the media from their vantage point on the roof and the ensuing stand-off lasted several weeks under the world's gaze, much to the embarrassment of the authorities.

The riot lasted until 25 April when prison staff moved to regain control of the prison. In total, some 147 prison staff and 47 prisoners were injured during the riot, and one prisoner and one prison officer were killed. The repair bill amounted to approximately £60 million at Strangeways and the riot proved to be the catalyst for copycat disturbances at no fewer than 26 other prisons around the United Kingdom.

23 prisoners received a total of 140 years imprisonment for their part in the Strangeways riot. The prison was rebuilt and is now known as Her Majesty's Prison, Manchester.

The Woolf Report 1991: The causes of the riot and recommendations for reform

The Strangeways riot prompted a comprehensive judicial inquiry into the prison system and this led to the Woolf Report of 1991. Lord Woolf's report has been acclaimed as the most radical reassessment of the United Kingdom prison system of the 20th century. Moreover, the report was celebrated as a model "for the restoration of decency and justice into jails" in which it was widely believed conditions had become intolerable.

Lord Woolf's objective was to establish what motivated the riot; to recommend policies that could be adopted to prevent or at least substantially reduce the chance of future violent unrest; and to suggest general improvements to the United Kingdom prison system.

The causes of the Strangeways riot were found to be many and varied. At the time of the riot for example, prisoners were required to "slop out" - i.e. to defecate and urinate in chamber pots in cells which were typically shared. On this point Woolf concluded that access to proper sanitation for prisoners should be achieved by 1996. This policy was indeed promptly implemented. Slopping out was abolished and by the mid-90s almost all cells had been equipped with internal sanitation.

Woolf also concluded that the "standards of justice" within prisons should be improved and refined. In particular he recommended the introduction of an independent complaints monitor. Woolf reported that:

"The presence of an independent element within the Grievance Procedure is more than just an 'optional extra'. The case for some form of independent person or body to consider grievances is incontrovertible. There is no possibility of the present system satisfactorily meeting this point even once it has bedded down. A system without an independent element is not a system which accords with proper standards of justice".

Accordingly, the office of Prisons Ombudsman was established in October 1994 and Sir Peter Woodhead KCB was appointed. The first Annual Report of the Ombudsman was subsequently published on 23 October 1996.

The 1996 Report indicated that the Ombudsman dealt with in excess of 2,000 complaints during his initial year of operation. He undertook 424 full investigations and upheld almost half of the complaints made to him (44 per cent). It is submitted that this figure suggests that there were a great many valid concerns within the prison population of the day. The Prison Service accepted 90% of the recommendations made to them.
In his Report, Woodhead expressed measured praise for the Prison Service's work but he also made certain specific criticisms. He found, unsurprisingly perhaps, that a general attitude of defensiveness and reticence was displayed by Prison Service staff. Moreover he identified particular areas of the operation of the Prison Service that provoked the most complaints from inmates; these included the issue of disciplinary adjudications; prisoner's property; prison transfers; and security categorisations.

In the course of his investigation, Lord Woolf also pinpointed the difficulty of maintaining family and community ties while the prison sentence was being served as a significant cause of unrest. His Lordship highlighted the importance of holding prisoners as close as possible to their local area in order to facilitate family visits and increase the chances of vital domestic ties surviving the huge stresses of incarceration. Lord Woolf rightly, it is submitted, argued that such would also reduce the sense of detachment and alienation typically experienced by prisoners held in prisons a great distance from their home area and it seems obvious that this could only serve as a stabilising factor. This policy was implemented, in so far as was practically possible and general progress in this regard was made throughout the1990s. Moreover, payphones were introduced into jails to encourage the preservation of family relationships.

The Core Issue: Prison Overcrowding

Woolf found that one of the major causes of concern and bones of contention at Strangeways was the state of overcrowding in British prisons. Indeed, this is probably the most important of the issues he identified. Unfortunately, due largely to other upstream penal policies and the will of successive Government's to appear tough on crime, this has been a much harder matter to resolve.

In 1990, the prison population stood at 43,000; in 2005 the figure stood at 75,000. Deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust Geoff Dobson, has stated that: "chronic overcrowding continues to affect almost every aspect of the prison estate" and it is hard to argue with this observation given the obvious and far reaching consequences of any overcrowded environment, let alone one subject to rigorous restriction.

When the Woolf report was delivered, it was welcomed by the then Home Secretary Kenneth Baker and the Conservative Government of the day undertook to implement many of the reforms it contained. It is certainly true that effective steps were taken and that valuable reforms were indeed brought into effect. However, it can be argued and is submitted here that while the icing of the prison service has been considerably improved, the cake remains largely the same. This commentator contends that the central issue in the arena of prison reform is manifestly that of prison overcrowding and that this challenged has yet to be overcome.

In an address to a Prison Reform Trust conference in 2001, Lord Woolf, now the Lord Chief Justice, revisited his 1991 report and raised what he referred to as "the curse of overcrowding". He criticised the fact that his recommendation to establish a network of community prisons had been ignored by successive Governments. He opined with regret that, in light of the burgeoning prison population the concept was likely to "remain theoretical for the foreseeable future". Lord Woolf conceded that the then Director General of the Prison Service, Martin Narey, had reportedly commented that the putative notion of community prisons was "a dream". However, his Lordship was at pains to stress that prison overcrowding "debilitates the whole prison system… As a nation we cannot allow overcrowding to be the position for the next 20 years. We must manage things better."

It is a plain fact that Strangeways prison was built in 1878 to hold 890 men. At the time of the riot it housed around 1,600 inmates. Those statistics speak for themselves. It may require either substantive changes in penal and sentencing policy, or massive investment in prison building, or the implementation of both these policies in tandem to grasp the nettle of overcrowding and fully address the central problem that provoked the Strangeways riot. However, neither of these policies will garner much in the way of public support and it seems unlikely that the issue will be championed by the current Government, which is still eager to demonstrate a strict attitude to law and order so as to position itself effectively against its Conservative opposition. Overcrowding may therefore characterise our penal system for years to come. It is indisputable that, in the eyes of many, there are more worthy draws on the nation's purse than its prisons.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Woolf, Lord Chief Justice (1991) Prison Disturbances: April 1990 (Cm. 1456). London: HMSO.

The Woolf Report - A Summary of the Main Findings and Recommendations of the Inquiry into Prison Disturbances, Prison Reform Trust (1991).

M. Cavadino & J. Dignan (2002) The Penal System 3rd edition, Sage Publications.

Player, E. and M. Jenkins (eds) (1994) Prisons after Woolf: Reform through riot. London: Routledge .

The Framework Document for the Prison Service (1993),
http://www.british-prisons.co.uk/British%20Prisons/penalstructureinenglandandw.htm

Prison Ombudsman's Annual Report 1995: http://www.ppo.gov.uk/download/annualreps/prisom.html

Making Prisons Work, Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, Home Secretary, Prison Reform Trust Annual Lecture (1998).

The Woolf Report - A Decade of Change, Lord Chief Justice Woolf, Prison Reform Trust Annual Lecture (2001).

The Guardian - various articles.

Tweet

Do you need to translate this page?

To translate this page into another language, please select the correct language from the box below.

LOOKING FOR SPECIFIC HELP? We can help you in many law areas!

Did you know that we also provide a service that can help you in other law areas such as:

• GCSE Law Coursework
• A Level Law Coursework
• Law Essay Writing
• BVC/BPTC Writing
• LLM Writing
• LPC letter drafting
• Opinion Writing
• English Legal System
• And much more!

Want to see what our customers say about us? Click here to watch our video.

Want to become a writer for Law Teacher and earn up to £4,000 per month? Click here now!

Secure your law degree, order your custom law essay right now!

Order Now. It takes less than 2 minutes.

1. * Name   
2. * Email   
3. * Phone   

1. * Your essay question 
   (please give as much detail as possible)  

Copyright © 2012 All Answers Ltd. All Answers Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with Company Registration No: 4964706 VAT Registration No: 842417633 - Law Teacher - The law essay professionals