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

Published

9 months ago

October 22, 2024

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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

‘A constant game of cat and mouse’: Inside the crackdown on illegal moped delivery drivers

Published

1 hour ago

July 10, 2025

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'A constant game of cat and mouse': Inside the crackdown on illegal moped delivery drivers

The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.

“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.

“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”

Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.

The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.

“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.

“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”

Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.

He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.

He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.

We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.

Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.

This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.

Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’s retail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.

She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.

“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.

“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”

There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.

Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.

But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.

“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.

The gig economy – so prevalent in every city – creates another incentive for those wanting to risk their lives coming to the UK illegally.

More than 20,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in 2025 – a record number at this point of the year.

For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.

There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.

As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.

UK

This flimsy vessel carrying migrants could reach British waters in a few hours’ time

Published

4 hours ago

July 10, 2025

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This flimsy vessel carrying migrants could reach British waters in a few hours' time

We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.

And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.

There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.

Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.

The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.

A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.

As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.

Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.

Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.

The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.

The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.

We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.

They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.

In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.

We follow the boat as it chugs off in the direction of Britain, carrying around 50 people.

The Minck returns to shadowing its progress, but its job is limited to offering help if the boat gets into trouble.

Otherwise, if the engine keeps working, then this flimsy vessel will reach British waters in a few hours’ time.

UK

‘A constant game of cat and mouse’: Inside the police crackdown on illegal moped delivery drivers

Published

7 hours ago

July 10, 2025

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