SCRUBS PRISON OFFICERS 'BEYOND CONTROL'

Evidence mounts of jail's brutal regime 'amounting to torture' Alan
Travis, Home Affairs Editor

For more than a century Wormwood Scrubs has been one of the most
famous jails in Britain, but it seems that brutality allegations
threaten to sink what was once the flagship of the entire prison service.

As the chief inspector of prisons warned two years ago, behind the
proud facade lies a decaying Victorian jail whose horrific conditions
stem from a failure to modernise.

In the words of Sir David Ramsbotham, the "ship is dead in the water
and has been overtaken by other ships in the line". During his
inspection he heard strong rumours about "the illegal use of force" at
the prison.

Sir David, who believes that the option of closing this flagship
should be seriously considered, played a pivotal role in ensuring that
the allegations of brutality centring on the jail's segregation unit
were brought to light.

In March 1998 the solicitors Hickman Rose, who were acting for many of
the 50 prisoners involved, passed him a dossier documenting the
allegations of serious assaults at the Scrubs and in an allegedly
connected case at Pentonville prison. It was backed by the local MP,
Clive Soley, and the Prison Reform Trust.

That dossier led to the largest ever criminal investigation into a
jail, with a team of officers working out of Paddington Green police
station since March last year.

Their inquiry related to repeated allegations of assault and brutality
between January 1997 and May 1998, with a few cases either side of
that date.

A second police investigation based at Hammersmith police station is
still looking at a similar number of cases dating back as far as 1991,
as well as more recent allegations made in the last 12 months.

At the same time, many of the inmates involved have been granted legal
aid to sue the home office for damages.

Many of the concerns raised about the safety of prisoners at the
Scrubs were put in the public domain by the 1997 annual report to the
home secretary and parliament by the prison's board of visitors.

That report, published in March 1998, raised serious concerns "at the
possibility of a few unrestrained officers tainting the reputation of
the majority of decent dedicated staff".

It said: "Some names crop up regularly in these allegations, and some
staff have privately acknowledged to us 'it goes on'."

Inmates had complained about alleged abuse, but none of the complaints
was upheld, the report said. "This may be the right conclusion in
every case, but because investigations are carried out internally, it
supports the scuttlebutt of whitewash and collusion."

The board of visitors said that rules governing strip searches and
"restraints" were not applied in the care and control unit, which
covered the segregation unit and cells for vulnerable prisoners.

Only governors were supposed to authorise "temporary confinements
and/or use of restraint", but this rule was not being consistently or
appro priately applied, the report said.

No record was kept of strip searches, which prisoners told the board
were carried out routinely rather than exceptionally. The report said
that these were all issues that tended to "fuel inmate belief that the
segregation unit is a place where force is illicitly and habitually
used".

The board of visitors' report gives only a flavour of some of the
worst brutality allegations to hit the prison service in recent history.

The police inquiry led to the suspension of a senior prison manager
and eight officers, and more were to follow at what is the one of the
largest prisons in western Europe.

The dossier, compiled by Daniel Machover of Hickman Rose, included
allegations of racism, beatings, and intimidation.

One inmate has claimed he was assaulted by staff almost every day for
a month; another claimed his head had been stamped on and banged
against the wall.

Some inmates have alleged that the violence was systematic and
pre-planned, and amounted to torture.

The allegations sparked a series of walkouts by officers at the jail,
one of the last remaining bastions of the Prison Officers'
Association.

At one point half the uniformed staff - more than 100 officers -
called in sick and stayed off in protest at the brutality allegations,
claiming that members of staff had been breaking down in tears and
that their families had been abused in the streets around the prison.

More than 80 managers from other London prisons had to be drafted in
to run the segregation unit and other parts of the jail.

An internal prison service inquiry led to the appointment of a
permanent governor in March 1998; the prison had been without its most
senior manager for a year. Stephen Moore, governor of Albany prison on
the Isle of Wight, was charged with reassuring all involved that the
jail was not out of control.

But, as the report from the chief inspector of prisons is expected to
show, when it is published in three weeks' time, that there is still a
serious lack of management control.

A leaked copy of an early draft of his report broadcast by Channel 4
News last night alleges that staff talk openly of the ability of
unions to keep managerial decisions in check, or even to have the
power of veto over them.

It claims that many staff feel that they could take little action
without the authority of the Prison Officers' Association.

Last night the solicitor involved, Mr Machover, called for a public
inquiry, saying that individual criminal prosecutions, whilst welcome,
would not provide the information that was needed by the management of
the prison service, the home secretary, and others.

"To learn the learn the deeper lessons from Wormwood Scrubs, someone
needs to listen to the former chaplains, board of visitor members,
probation officers, prisoners and prison officers, who will not be
giving evidence in the criminal cases but have important things to say
about their experiences at the prison.

"To ensure that seven years of serious allegations of this kind do not
emerge from another prison in the UK, such people must have the
opportunity to give evidence before a public inquiry."