British private prisons in spotlight after takeover of G4S-run ‘crisis’ jail
Violence and drug use said to be common in Birmingham prison, where staff were said to be locking themselves up to keep safe from inmates
The British government seized control of a squalid contractor-run prison on Monday where inspectors said officers were locking themselves away as protection from prisoners, raising questions about its privatisation programme.
The justice ministry was forced to take over HMP Birmingham from private security company G4S, following a damning inspection that reported “squalor, violence and the prevalence of drugs and looming lack of control”.
In a first since Britain began contracting the running of some prisons to companies in the early 1990s, it will manage the jail in central England for an initial six-month period.
“This is the shocking situation … which is why we’ve taken the step, an unprecedented step, of moving in,” Prisons Minister Rory Stewart told the BBC. “If conditions have not returned to what we want … we would continue to run that prison.”
The move was seized upon by opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, a fierce privatisation critic who has pledged a programme of re-nationalisations if his Labour Party regains power.