A Prisons Inspectorate report on Belmarsh published in November 2021 graphically shows how the south London high security prison is rife with violence by prison guards against prisoners, and how the pandemic lockdown has allowed this to continue and rise unchecked. JOHN BOWDEN reports.
In October 2020 a senior leader of the Prison Officers Association (POA) described total lockdown of prisons because of the pandemic as a ‘blessing in disguise’ because it provided prison guards with the means to retake total control of a prison system that had descended into violent chaos with increasing levels of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-staff violence.
When the inspectors visited Belmarsh nearly a year later, they found the lockdown had become normalised: ‘Prisoners who were not working spent up to 23 hours a day locked in their cells. Only 23% of prisoners were engaged in out-of-cell purposeful activity. Most prisoners had around 45-50 minutes outdoor exercise each day, although some got as little as 30 minutes. Association had not been available in the main prison since the restricted regime commenced in March 2020. The library remained closed and there were no developed plans to reopen it. Unlike in other prisons, the gym was still closed.’
Staff violence increasing
Both the POA and prison inspectors claim that since the lockdown the level of violence in prison has decreased significantly and resulted in a safer environment for both staff and prisoners. It seems odd therefore that in apparently better controlled and safer prisons the level of staff violence against prisoners has increased dramatically.
During the lockdown the balance of power has shifted radically to the advantage of the guards who now no longer have to deal with prisoners as a large collective group potentially capable of organised resistance but only as isolated individuals vulnerable to a growing guard culture of bullying and gratuitous violence.
This is especially evident in Belmarsh, where the ‘use of force’ on prisoners during the lockdown has significantly increased. As the report describes: ‘The recorded use of force had doubled since our last inspection even though there had been a reduction in the population and prisoners were locked up for longer.’
Not only has overall staff violence increased, but the Inspectorate report clearly highlights how this is targeted against young black prisoners in particular: ‘41% of prisoners aged 25 or under said that they had been physically restrained at Belmarsh. Force was also used on a disproportionate number of prisoners from a black or ethnic minority background.’
Furthermore, prison staff are making sure that their attacks go unrecorded: ‘Staff did not routinely activate body-worn video cameras during incidents of force and our checks showed that around a third of cameras had not been collected by staff when they came on duty. In 11 uses of force that we reviewed, only three had video footage available [and] for the months of January and June 2021, a total of 84 incidents of force were recorded yet less than 30% had evidence that body-worn cameras were activated. Due to the lack of video footage to support staff statements, we could not be assured that the use of force was necessary in all cases.’
Britain’s Guantanamo
Belmarsh has always had an infamous reputation and in 2001 earned the name Britain’s Guantanamo, when foreign prisoners were detained there indefinitely without charge or trial under Tony Blair’s Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act. The current treatment of whistle-blower Julian Assange, which his supporters describe as psychological torture, shows that Belmarsh continues to operate without the slightest regard for the basic human rights of those imprisoned there.
Reflective of the institutional racism of the entire British criminal justice system, 52% of Belmarsh prisoners are of ethnic minority background and 28% of Muslim faith. In 2018 the Chief Inspector of prisons reported that most black and ethnic minority prisoners in Belmarsh felt threatened and intimidated by racist guards.
Within Belmarsh, in addition to the segregation or punishment unit, there is a High Security Unit – a prison within a prison – where up to 47 prisoners are held in solitary confinement and denied access to even a restricted ordinary prison regime. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson defended the use of mental torture units in Belmarsh, saying: ‘We have tough measures in place to prevent extremist prisoners spreading their poisonous ideology …’
The segregation unit also contains two ‘Rule 46 cells’ where prisoners held under the punitive Close Supervision Centre system, can be sent for prolonged periods. Prison resister Kevan Thakrar is currently held in one of these cells.
So Belmarsh remains Britain’s Guantanamo. Prison conditions generally in Britain are dehumanising and barbaric, but Belmarsh exists as a nakedly undisguised weapon of state repression, which – in an increasingly oppressive social and political climate – we all have a political duty to confront.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 286 February/March 2022
