On Friday, Birmingham prison played host to the worst prison riot since the Strangeways jail riot 16 years ago. Stairwells were set on fire and paper records destroyed as the chaos spread across four wings of the privately-run G4S prison. The problems then continued over the weekend with further incidents reported at Cardiff Prison and Hull Prison on Sunday involving Birmingham prisoners, who had been moved
Today Liz Truss attempted to address the problem with a statement in the Commons. The Justice Secretary said she had launched an inquiry into the incident, and insisted she was confident that government reforms will make prisons safer. However, Truss warned that the next few months will be difficult:
‘As I have said before, levels of violence are too high in our prisons. We also have very concerning levels of self-harm and deaths in custody. That is why we are reforming our prisons to be safe and purposeful places and taking swift action to deal with drugs, drones and phones.
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