HM Prison Birmingham

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HM Prison Birmingham
Location Winson Green, Birmingham, West Midlands
Status Operational
Security class Adult Male/Category B&C
Capacity 1450 (January 2006)
Opened 1849
Managed by G4S
Director Peter Small[1]

HM Prison Birmingham is a Category B/C men's prison, located in the Winson Green area of Birmingham, England. The prison was formerly operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service. It is now managed by G4S .[2]

History[edit]

Birmingham is a Victorian prison, built in 1849.

In 1995, Birmingham was criticised by its own Board of Visitors for being soft on prisoners. This arose after allegations that one inmate had gone on two weeks' holiday to Minorca, while being released for weekend leave.[3]

In January 1999 an inspection report by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons attacked conditions at Birmingham, describing the health centre in the jail as the "untidiest and dirtiest" inspectors had ever come across. The report also criticised the prison for its lack of a sex offender treatment programme, the lack of employment and education opportunities, and the inadequate bathing arrangements where some inmates were only being allowed a full wash three times a week.[3]

In March 2001 the Chief Inspector declared that conditions had worsened in Birmingham Prison where around 11% of inmates had claimed to have been assaulted by prison officers. One particular incident involved a mentally-disturbed prisoner who had been denied a wash or change of clothes for weeks because staff thought he was faking his illness.[4]

In 2002 the prison was expanded as a result of a multimillion-pound investment programme by the Prison Service. 450 additional prisoner places were added together with new workshops, educational facilities, a new healthcare centre and gym as well as extensions and improvements to existing facilities. Two years later, a report from the Chief Inspector found that conditions at Birmingham had substantially improved, stating that the prison was a place where "positive attitudes are firmly embedded".[5]

In November 2007 the Independent Monitoring Board warned in a report that overcrowding at Birmingham was putting prisoners and staff at risk. The report stated that if overcrowding was not tackled, then there was a potential for unrest.[6] Two years later, the Board issued another report that criticised levels of overcrowding at Birmingham Prison. The report also noted that inmates from the jail were being transferred to prisons further north, to accommodate increased prisoner levels from the South-East of England.[7]

Birmingham became the first publicly built, owned and operated prison in the UK to be transferred to the private sector. G4S formally took over the day-to-day running of the prison in October 2011.[8]

Executions[edit]

Numerous judicial executions by hanging took place at the prison until the abolition of capital punishment in the UK. A total of 35 executions took place at Birmingham prison during the 20th century.[9] The last person ever to be hanged at the prison was a 20-year-old Jamaican named Oswald Augustus Grey. He was executed on 20 November 1962 after being convicted of the shooting death of newsagent Thomas Bates during the course of a robbery in Lee Bank Road on 3 June 1962.[10][11][12] Christopher Simcox, a double-murderer, was scheduled for execution at Birmingham prison on Tuesday, 17 March 1964, but was reprieved.

The following people were executed in Birmingham Prison between 1885 and 1962:

Executed person Age Date executed Victim(s)
Henry Kimberley 53 17 March 1885 Emma Palmer
George Nathaniel Daniels 34 28 August 1888 Emma Hastings (21)
Harry Benjamin Jones 25 28 August 1888 Florence Harris, a child
Frederick Davies 40 26 August 1890 his wife
Frederick William Fenton 32 4 April 1894 Florence Elborough (24)
Frank Taylor 21 18 August 1896 Mary Lewis (10)
John Joyce 36 20 August 1901 John Nugent (61)
Charles Samuel Dyer 25 5 April 1904 Martha Eliza Simpson (21, girlfriend)
Samuel Holden 43 16 August 1904 Susan Humphries (35, girlfriend)
Frank Greening 34 13 August 1913 Elizabeth Ellen Hearne (27, girlfriend)
William Allen Butler 39 16 August 1916 Florence Beatrice Butler (29)
Louis Van Der Kerkhove 32 9 April 1918 Clemence Verelst (35, girlfriend)
Henry Thomas Gaskin 27 8 August 1919 Elizabeth Gaskin (23, wife)
Samuel Westwood 26 30 December 1920 Lydia Westwood (24, wife)
Edward O'Connor 43 22 December 1921 Thomas O'Connor (5, son)
Elijah Pountney 48 11 August 1922 Alice Gertrude Pountney (47, wife)
William Rider 40 19 December 1922 Rosilla Patience Barton (24, bigamous wife)
John Fisher 58 5 January 1926 Ada Taylor (56, girlfriend)
George Sharples 20 13 April 1926 Milly Illingworth Crabtree (25)
James Joseph Power 32 31 January 1928 Olive Gordon Turner (18)
Victor Edward Betts 21 3 January 1931 William Thomas Andrews (63)
Jeremiah Hanbury 49 2 February 1933 Jessie Payne (39, girlfriend)
Stanley Eric Hobday 21 29 December 1933 Charles William Fox (24)
Dorothea Nancy Waddingham 36 16 April 1936 Louisa Baguley (89), Ada Baguley (50)
Peter Barnes 32 7 February 1940 Elsie Ansell (21), John Arnott (15), James Clay (81),
Rex Gentle (30), and Gwilym Rowland (50)
James Richards 29 7 February 1940
Eli Richards 45 19 September 1941 Jane Turner (64)
Arthur Peach 23 30 January 1942 Kitty Lyon (18)
Harold Oswald Merry 40 10 September 1942 Joyce Dixon (27, girlfriend)
William Quayle 52 3 August 1943 Vera Clarke (8)
James Farrell 19 29 March 1949 Joan Mary Marney (14)
Piotr Maksimowski 33 29 March 1950 Dilys Doreen Campbell (30, girlfriend)
William Athur Watkins 49 3 April 1951 Unnamed illegitimate son (newborn)
Horace Carter 31 1 January 1952 Sheila Ethel Attwood (11)
Leslie Green 29 23 December 1952 Alice Wiltshaw (62)
Frederick Arthur Cross 33 26 July 1955 Donald Haywood Lainton (28)
Corbett Montague Roberts 46 2 August 1955 Doris Acquilla Roberts (41, wife)
Ernest Charles Harding 42 9 August 1955 Evelyn Patricia Higgins (10)
Dennis Howard 24 4 December 1957 David Alan Keasey (21)
Matthew Kavanagh 32 12 August 1958 Isaiah Dixon (60)
Oswald Augustus Grey 20 20 November 1962 Thomas Bates (47)

The prison today[edit]

Birmingham holds adult male prisoners, serving the Crown and Magistrates' Courts of Birmingham, Stafford and Wolverhampton and the Magistrates' Courts of Burton upon Trent, Cannock.

Education and training at Birmingham Prison is provided by Milton Keynes College. Learning programmes for inmates include basic and key skills, bricklaying, plumbing, painting and decorating, carpentry, joinery, forklift truck training, industrial cleaning, catering, textiles, barbering, information technology, business, creative arts and performing arts. All courses lead to qualifications such as NVQs, and there is the option for further study with the Open University.

The Prison Library Service is provided by Birmingham City Council's Library Services, and all prisoners have access to the service. As well as facilities for independent learners, the library has special collections on law, employment, health, community information, English as a second or other language (ESOL), and basic skills materials. There is also a Learning Centre within the library to provide additional learning support to those with dyslexia and ESOL needs.

Physical Education at Birmingham is provided on a daily basis over a 7-day period, and evenings over 5 days. There are a number of sports delivered and also sports related subjects from basic skills to NVQ Level 2 in Sports and Recreation.

Birmingham has a prison chaplaincy with full-time chaplains from the Church of England, Roman Catholic, Free Church and Muslim faiths. There are also sessional staff from the Sikh, Buddhist and Hindu faiths.

Assaults by prisoners have been rising with an average of three assaults a week on staff, some serious. There have also been assaults and serious assaults by prisoners on other prisoners.[13] Drones were used to bring drugs into the prison which Petherick of G4S confirmed.[14]

In autumn 2016 concerns were expressed about drugs which can make prisoners violent being smuggled into the prison. Jerry Petherick of G4S who run the prison claimed "a very small minority of staff are corrupt". Petherick also said contraband was brought in by visitors, by drones and was thrown over the walls.[15]

Staff shortages were also problematic influencing efficiency, morale, and wellbeing.[16] Jobs for prison officers at Birmingham Prison were advertised with a starting salary of just under £10 an hour.[17]

2016 prison riot[edit]

There was reportedly a build up of frustration over prison conditions prior to the riot. Low staff numbers, poor healthcare and nutrition were cited as factors. Also being on, 'lockdown' in their cells all day was cited as a major contributing factor to the disturbance.[18]

On December 16, 2016 a prison guard was reportedly "rushed" by inmates leading to a rapid escalation of what prison officials described as "trouble".[19] According to a G4S statement, staff retreated from two of the prison's four wings, sealing the abandoned sections before withdrawing.[20] The disturbances, however, subsequently spread to the remaining two wings.[20] According to a different account of events told by a "prison affairs blogger" quoted by The Guardian, the breakdown in order began after inmates seized control of fire hoses and began breaking lights.[21] Prison staff attempted to lock down inmates in their cells, however, during the operation a guard's keys were stolen, whereupon security staff were ordered to evacuate the wing.[21]

A Prison Officers Association spokesman described the incident as, "another stark warning to the Ministry of Justice that the service is in crisis".[22] Shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon said, “This is only the latest in a number of disturbances across the prison estate. The justice secretary is failing to get this crisis under control.”[23] Michael Spurr of National Offender Management Service Agency claimed drugs, overcrowding, and reduced staffing had put prisons under pressure.[24]

One inmate in the prison's G wing, which is reserved for sex offenders, reportedly informed his solicitor that, during the disturbance, rioting inmates had attempted to gain access to that section of the facility and that prisoners were "terrified" they would be attacked.[20]

On Friday evening, specialist riot squads from Her Majesty's Prison Service were dispatched to assume control of the situation due to the scale of the disturbance, which had grown to involve more than 600 inmates.[19] By late that day, prison officials were reportedly back in control of the facility.[19] 460 prisoners were moved to other prisons[24] and some caused problems at Hull Prison.[25][26] The Birmingham riot was described by one source as the worst prison disturbance in a B category prison in the United Kingdom since the 1990 Strangeways Prison riot.[19] The Birmingham riot caused about $2 million worth of damage.[15]

This is the third serious incident within under two months, Riots previously happened at Bedford Prison and Lewes Prison[23] and a subsequent riot happened at Swaleside Prison.

Popular culture[edit]

Notable former inmates[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "HMP Birmingham Contacts". hmpbirmingham.co.uk. Retrieved 19 February 2015. 
  2. ^ "G4S will take over 1,400-inmate jail in October'". BBC. 1 July 2011. 
  3. ^ a b "Jail conditions attacked". BBC. 13 January 1999. 
  4. ^ "Jail 'among worst in UK'". BBC. 15 March 2001. 
  5. ^ "Report praises Birmingham Prison". BBC. 24 September 2004. 
  6. ^ "Overcrowding fears at city prison". BBC. 20 November 2007. 
  7. ^ "Prison inmates 'forced to move'". BBC. 29 January 2009. 
  8. ^ "Birmingham Prison: 123 jobs could go". BBC News. 1 July 2011. 
  9. ^ "Places of execution in the 20th century". 
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ "Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV) - School of Government and Society - University of Birmingham" (PDF). 
  12. ^ "newsagent murdered fifty years ago this month". The Brew 'Us Bugle. Ladywood History Group (36). Summer 2012. 
  13. ^ McCarthy, Nick (11 May 2016). "Attacks on staff at HMP Birmingham at record high, with three assaults a week". 
  14. ^ McCarthy, Nick (27 October 2016). "Birmingham prison being targeted by drug smuggling drones". 
  15. ^ a b HMP Birmingham riot repairs 'will cost £2m'
  16. ^ Birmingham prison staff fears over inmate drug use BBC
  17. ^ Birmingham prison riot: government was warned two months earlier The Guardian
  18. ^ HMP Birmingham riot: Officers regain control of prison BBC
  19. ^ a b c d "Riot officers enter HMP Birmingham amid disturbances". BBC News. December 17, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016. 
  20. ^ a b c Sharman, Jon (December 17, 2016). "Birmingham prison riot: Hundreds of prisoners take over four wings as disorder spreads". The Independent. Retrieved December 17, 2016. 
  21. ^ a b Grierson, Jamie (December 17, 2016). "HMP Birmingham: authorities regain control after prison riot". The Guardian. Retrieved December 17, 2016. 
  22. ^ 'Disturbance' reported at HMP Birmingham BBC
  23. ^ a b HMP Birmingham prison rioters will face 'full force of law', says Truss The Guardian
  24. ^ a b HMP Birmingham riot: 240 prisoners to be moved after riot BBC
  25. ^ Hull prison 'on brink of riot' after inmates arrive from Birmingham The Guardian
  26. ^ G4S must pay for cost of Birmingham prison riot, says Liz Truss The Guardian
  27. ^ "Ashley Blake: I began prison life in the Winson Green cell Fred West hanged himself in". Birmingham Mail. 4 September 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2016. 

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 52°29′35.54″N 1°56′14.05″W / 52.4932056°N 1.9372361°W / 52.4932056; -1.9372361

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