The first days of 2014 saw yet another disturbance at Oakwood, Britain’s biggest prison. Oakwood, which is run by private contractors G4S, has been the scene of repeated protests by prisoners since it opened in 2012. Accounts of what actually happened in the latest incident on 5 January have varied, and we have not managed to hear directly from any prisoners at Oakwood on this occasion. G4S management, which of course wants to demonstrate their ability to run prisons with a minimum of trouble, claim it was an incident of ‘concerted indiscipline’ which was brought under control without too much difficulty. In contrast, a prison officer from the ‘Tornado team’ squad sent into the prison to put down the protest has described it as a ‘full-scale riot’. The Tornado teams are made up of specially trained officers from other prisons who are sent into any riot or disturbance situation. They are generally made up of POA members from state prisons who oppose the privatisation of imprisonment, not on the grounds that this adversely affects prisoners, but because it harms their own pay and conditions.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 11:44:59 +0000
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