Government takes over HMP Birmingham from G4S

The government has taken over the running of HMP Birmingham from G4S after the chief inspector of prisons described the jail as being in a state of crisis.

The Ministry of Justice announced on 20 August that it was stepping in at the Winson Green prison following an inspection that found appalling conditions.

"The worst prison"

Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, described what his team found as among the worst he had seen. He said there had been a "dramatic deterioration" in conditions since the riot in December 2016, and that violent prisoners could act with "near impunity".

Inspectors found that some staff were locking themselves in their offices, and that parts of the prison were filthy, with blood, vomit and rat droppings on the floors. Many prisoners and staff lived and worked in fear, and some vulnerable prisoners had locked themselves in their cells for their own safety.

Drug use was widespread. Inspectors said they witnessed many prisoners under the influence of drugs, and some openly using and trading them around the prison. "Shockingly, staff were too often ambivalent and accepting of such incidents," they said.

Mr Clarke described an "abject failure" to manage and deliver the contract, and said "the inertia that seems to have gripped both those monitoring the contract and delivering it on the ground" had led to one of Britain's leading jails slipping into crisis.

Violence on the rise

The figures are stark. In 2017, 1,147 assaults, including fights, were recorded at the prison. That was more than at any other prison in England or Wales, and five times the number recorded in 2012, the first full year that G4S ran the jail.

The prison's Independent Monitoring Board has said that part of the problem was that the jail reopened too soon after the 2016 riot because of commercial pressures and rising prisoner numbers. In May, the board warned that the prison was failing to provide a safe and decent environment "on an almost daily basis".

A troubled history

HMP Birmingham, a Category B men's prison, was completed in 1849. In 2011, it became the first prison built, owned and operated by the state in Britain to be handed to the private sector, when G4S took over its day-to-day running.

In December 2016, the prison was hit by a major disturbance involving more than 600 inmates, described as one of the worst at a British prison since the Strangeways riot of 1990. Around 460 prisoners had to be moved elsewhere, and the damaged wings took months to reopen.

What happens now

Under the arrangement, the Ministry of Justice will take control of the prison, with extra staff brought in and a new governor put in charge. Some prisoners are expected to be moved out to reduce numbers while order is restored.

Mr Clarke has also called for an independent analysis of how the prison was allowed to descend into such chaotic conditions. Questions are likely to be asked about the future of the G4S contract and about how the problems went unaddressed for so long.