Assault, screaming and sensory overload: Inside HMP Elmley where ‘every day is unpredictable’

Published

9 months ago

October 22, 2024

admin

As we walked to one of the wings at HMP Elmley – there was screaming.

Persistent screaming from a prisoner.

He lifted up his top, revealing numerous scars across his body, and shouted: “This is what Elmley does to you! Self harm! This is what Elmley is doing!”

The rate of self harm in the male prison estate across England and Wales rose by 25% in the last year, so this isn’t uncommon. But quite quickly, it offered an evocative snapshot of life inside.

We went through security at about 7.45am on a weekday morning, before heading into a briefing with the governor about what to expect from our day at Elmley, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

Just as she said the word “unpredictable”, an alarm went off. The duty governor’s walkie-talkie was buzzing. He left the room.

A member of staff had been violently assaulted during morning unlock.

The staff member was ok. But it was violent.

Officer Price, who manages the wing, told Sky News it’s symptomatic of tight conditions, particularly in the winter as the heating is on and the cells are hot.

“A lot of frustration builds up. It means there’s more chance of violence going up, of self harm going up, because they are spending so much time looking at the same four walls. One of my staff members got assaulted this morning – that is proof in the pudding,” he said.

At points here over the last six months they’ve had just four free cell spaces, operating at almost 100% capacity.

On Tuesday, the government is releasing another round of prisoners early in an effort to free up space across an overcrowded prison estate.

Eligible offenders can be freed after serving 40% of their sentence. It’s a measure they’re trialling for 18 months.

Alongside this, they’ve launched a review of sentencing policy led by former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke who will be considering the effectiveness of fines and tougher community sentences, as an alternative to custody.

The population pressures in this prison have been a bit better in recent weeks, but still, you can feel the friction.

The governor told us at times recently it’s felt like “a pressure cooker”, made worse by a summer of riots where there were “daily calls” to check that “every bed” was being used.

‘Every day is unpredictable’

What strikes you inside is just how loud it is – all the time.

This was by all accounts not the worst day inside a prison. In fact, it felt fairly typical.

But it was just so loud. Absolutely everywhere. Even when the prisoners were locked up – one inmate was blaring loud music from behind his cell door. It was a complete sensory overload.

Some of the staff told us that they’d developed hearing problems as a result of working inside.

“Every day is unpredictable, you don’t know what you’re coming into,” said Officer Musmeci.

Asked what a bad day looks like, she reels off a list: “It could be fighting a fire, it could be giving CPR, it could be stopping a giant fight, a near on riot, it could be anything.

“Some days you come in and you’ve got all of that in one day. Some days you’ve got none of it,” she said.

Any time outside the cells feels frenetic.

We watched prisoners head from the wing to the servery as they got their lunch. I was asking staff about the food options but had to repeat my question a few times before I actually heard what they said.

The clashing, the banging, the shouting. The noise is like nothing I’d experienced before.

The food options were screamed not said.

‘A revolving door’

On the menu was a tomato pasta dish, falafel and couscous, a chicken pie slice, or a cheese and tomato roll. The prison spends £3 a day per inmate on food.

It might not sound like a lot of money to spend on a person’s diet, and yet prisoners here suggest people being released are wanting to return to keep a roof over their head. They question the effectiveness of early release measures.

Matt, who is on remand for drug offences, told me it’s like “a revolving door”.

“I’m seeing a lot of people being released homeless. They’re coming back for breaches of one sort of another, because they’d rather be in prison. They want a roof over their head,” he said.

Timothy, also in prison for drug offences, said the same: “You’ve got people now that break the law purposefully because they haven’t got anywhere to live.

“I can name four people off the top of my head, but there’s more, that cause damage to come back because they haven’t got anywhere to live.”

This is predominately a remand jail – many are waiting to be sentenced or awaiting trial.

The prison is set up to be about 40% remand. They’re currently operating with a 65% remand population. Many of them only stay for a short amount of time, which makes purposeful activity much more restricted.

“It can be very difficult”, said Mandy Huggins, head of education at Elmley. “There’s a high churn.”

We’re inside the laundry room where the more serious offenders work.

“What it means is that you have a higher level of unemployed prisoners. The last thing we want is people in their cells longer than they need to be. Or people that want to work that aren’t able to,” Ms Huggins said.

You can tell the staff really care about implementing these schemes. Success for Ms Huggins is “impacting the prisoners’ lives”.

But with population pressures the way they are, almost everything is more difficult. And there’s some way to go before the prison estate is out of this crisis.

The government said it “inherited prisons in crisis, within days of collapse” and is clear it is implementing measures such as the review of sentencing to “ensure we never again have more prisoners than prison spaces”.

It said it has been “forced to introduce an early release programme to stop a crisis that would have overwhelmed the criminal justice system, meaning we would no longer be able to lock up dangerous criminals and protect the public”.

The government has pledged to recruit 1,000 more trainee probation officers by March 2025.

UK

Post Office scandal: Daughter has had ‘panic attacks’ since mum was accused of stealing

Published

2 hours ago

July 8, 2025

admin

Post Office scandal: Daughter has had 'panic attacks' since mum was accused of stealing

The daughter of a Post Office victim has told Sky News she suffered “dark thoughts of suicide” in the years after her mother was accused of stealing.

Kate Burrows was 14 years old when her mother, Elaine Hood, was prosecuted and subsequently convicted in 2003.

The first public inquiry report on the Post Office – examining redress and the “human impact” of the scandal – is due to be published today.

“I’ve suffered with panic attacks from about 14, 15 years old, and I still have them to this day,” Kate said.

“I’ve been in and out of therapy for what feels like most of my adult life and it absolutely categorically goes back to [what happened].”

Kate, along with others, helped set up the charity Lost Chances, supporting the children of Post Office victims. She hopes the inquiry will recognise their suffering.

“It’s important that our voices are heard,” she said. “Not only within the report, but in law actually.

“And then maybe that would be a deterrent for any future cover-ups, that it’s not just the one person it’s the whole family [affected].”

Her sister, Rebecca Richards, who was 18 when their mother was accused, described how an eating disorder “escalated” after what happened.

“When my mum was going through everything, my only control of that situation was what food I put in my body,” she said.

She also said that seeing her mother at court when she was convicted, would “stay with me forever”.

“The two investigators were sat in front of my dad and I, sniggering and saying ‘we’ve got this one’.

“To watch my mum in the docks handcuffed to a guard… not knowing if she was going to be coming home… that is the most standout memory for me.”

The sisters are hoping the inquiry findings will push Fujitsu into fulfilling a promise they made nearly a year ago – to try and help the children of victims.

Last summer, Kate met with the European boss of the company, Paul Patterson, who said he would look at ways they could support Lost Chances.

Despite appearing at the inquiry in November last year and saying he would not “stay silent” on the issue, Kate said there has been little movement in terms of support.

“It’s very much a line of ‘we’re going to wait until the end of the inquiry report to decide’,” she said.

“But Mr Patterson met us in person, looked us in the eye, and we shared the most deeply personal stories and he said we will do something… they need to make a difference.”

Fujitsu, who developed the faulty Horizon software, has said it is in discussions with the government regarding a contribution to compensation.

The inquiry will delve in detail into redress schemes, of which four exist, three controlled by the government and one by the Post Office.

Victims of the scandal say they are hoping Sir Wyn Williams, chair of the inquiry, will recommend that the government and the Post Office are removed from the redress schemes as thousands still wait for full and fair redress.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said they were “grateful” for the inquiry’s work, describing “the immeasurable suffering” victims endured and saying the government has “quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters”, with more than £1bn having now been paid to thousands of claimants.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK

UK

Drones are sending ‘overwhelming amounts’ of drugs into prisons – and could help inmates escape, report warns

Published

9 hours ago

July 7, 2025

admin

Drones are sending 'overwhelming amounts' of drugs into prisons - and could help inmates escape, report warns

Sophisticated drones sending “overwhelming amounts” of drugs and weapons into prisons represent a threat to national security, according to an annual inspection report by the prisons watchdog.

HMP chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor has warned criminal gangs are targeting jails and making huge profits selling contraband to a “vulnerable and bored” prison population.

The watchdog boss reiterated his concerns about drones making regular deliveries to two Category A jails, HMP Long Lartin and HMP Manchester, which hold “the most dangerous men in the country”, including terrorists.

Mr Taylor said “the police and prison service have in effect ceded the airspace” above these two high-security prisons, which he said was compromising the “safety of staff, prisoners, and ultimately that of the public”.

“The possibility now whereby we’re seeing packages of up to 10kg brought in by serious organised crime means that in some prisons there is now a menu of drugs available,” he said. “Anything from steroids to cannabis, to things like spice and cocaine.”

“Drone technology is moving fast… there is a level of risk that’s posed by drones that I think is different from what we’ve seen in the past,” warned the chief inspector – who also said there’s a “theoretical risk” that a prisoner could escape by being carried out of a jail by a drone.

He urged the prison service to “get a grip” of the issue, stating: “We’d like to see the government, security services, coming together, using technology, using intelligence, so that this risk doesn’t materialise.”

The report makes clear that physical security – such as netting, windows and CCTV – is “inadequate” in some jails, including Manchester, with “inexperienced staff” being “manipulated”.

Mr Taylor said there are “basic” measures which could help prevent the use of drones, such as mowing the lawn, “so we don’t get packages disguised as things like astro turf”.

Responding to the report, the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) said: “The ready access to drugs is deeply worrying and is undermining efforts to create places of rehabilitation.”

Mr Taylor’s report found that overcrowding continues to be what he described as a “major issue”, with increasing levels of violence against staff and between prisoners, combined with a lack of purposeful activity.

Some 20% of adult men responding to prisoner surveys said they felt unsafe at the time of the inspection, increasing to 30% in the high security estate.

Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “This report is a checklist for all the reasons the government must prioritise reducing prison numbers, urgently.

“Sentencing reform is essential, and sensible steps to reduce the prison population would save lives.”

The report comes after the government pledged to accept most of the recommendations proposed in the independent review of sentencing policy, with the aim of freeing up around 9,500 spaces.

Those measures won’t come into effect until spring 2026.

Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said Mr Taylor’s findings show “the scale of the crisis” the government “inherited”, with “prisons dangerously full, rife with drugs and violence”.

He said: “After just 500 prison places added in 14 years, we’re building 14,000 extra – with 2,400 already delivered – and reforming sentencing to ensure we never run out of space again.

“We’re also investing £40m to bolster security, alongside stepping up cooperation with police to combat drones and stop the contraband which fuels violence behind bars.”