Strangeways: Britain’s Toughest Prison Riot

Broadcast on BBC2, 1st April 2015
On iPlayer till 23rd April

Reviewed by John Owen

During the chapel service to commemorate Easter Sunday on April 1st 1990, 300 assembled inmates – rather than listen to the military pastor tell them the meaning of lent – took the microphone and told him the meaning of riot.

Chosen because it was an event that would get the most inmates into one place without too many screws, Paul Taylor and Alan Lord (lifer) took control of the chapel and then the prison. Away from the 140 prison officers looking on astounded. "Leave the fucking keys let’s get out" said one screw. A fatal mistake.

In London – far away at Trafalgar square – a battle later to be known as the Poll Tax Riot/Rebellion had erupted onto the streets the day before, some 200,000 demonstrators attacked by riot police, replied in kind with a hail of broken paving stones, scaffolding and fire, for starters.

The documentary, a reflection now safe to look back on 25yrs later, with prison still the preferred option of the authorities for people with a disagreement. These candid comments from all concerned screws, police, prisoner’s, governors, it was an agreement to differ on history for facts sake.

“A place without women money and liberty” said one prison officer.

“Policing methods were very old school, the staff were ex-World War 1 in the 20s and then ex-WW2 soldiers in the 50s, military discipline had prevailed with a strict discipline code.” Said another gleeful unabashed officer.

“Our outlook was to keep our mouths shut, eyes wide open and to listen”.

All of this with a hardnosed Thatcher government tough on crime, law breakers and welfare claimants, crime rate was soaring through the roof, Strangeways was at bursting point when the lid blew off spectacularly with the worlds press soon to zone in.

Three to a cell slop out or a piss and shit bucket, in the cell all night, no air, no sanitation, they were animals according to some Tory grandees; the 900 prisoner limit exceeded to 1500 inmates and counting, something had to give.

Paul Taylor inmate leader and spokesman for the rioters had written a 28 page appeal to the governors and his plea had fallen on deaf ears. They hatched the plan to take over the prison to draw attention to the harsh inhuman and brutal treatment meted out to some prisoners by the rotten core of fascists and racists employed as warders.

1 hour of exercise was followed by 23 locked in a cell, it was described as “a human warehouse” by the reforming governor Brendan O’Friel who’d introduced women warders to help defuse the tension, a psychological element to new management techniques. Although resisted by the rest of the male warders.

People adopted a see no evil hear no evil speak no evil uneasy truce, which existed in the artificial city that was Strangeways. An urban jungle closed version of Jonestown Guyana with an equally religious governor in charge of proceedings. 20 tonnes of scaffolding lay in the central atrium of the prison, as repairs were underway to modernise the facility, rendering the place gloomy and dark.

After presenting another 18 page representation of prisoner’s grievances, Paul Taylor was duly segregated with Alan Lord, himself inside for fighting screws. Everyone lay wide awake that night, the place was buzzing with an air of foreboding expectation. The screws were short staffed, an alehouse was next to the prison for them alone, some returned pissed, quite often for duty.

Payback time came the keys were taken for all the cells throughout the prison, Strangeways was duly removed out of the hands of the screws into the hands of the prisoners. Workers had taken control of their own prison.

Despite gory and sensational tabloid press distortions, there were not 20 killed, beaten to death sex category E offenders, these lies pedaled by the media were very similar to the vile abuse hurled at Hillsborough fans. The lights and power were cut off throughout the prison, a ‘starve them out’ approach. This was adopted after top brass bottled out, fearful of a beating that could see staff or riot police killed. Drafting in seasoned veterans of prison riots like Brian Nicholson, Hull and Leeds, under his belt. With the media outside they stood down and let it run its course for 3 or 4 weeks.

As they were being interview by the world’s media on the roof the screws turned on loud noises to stop it, helicopters flew overhead to drown out their voices so they used writing to communicate their grievances. The prison officer’s method of attack, vengeful since losing their prison, feeling morally insulted was to waft bacon butties smell up, the female warders’ started to coo and bill at inmate leader Alfie Lord along with other pathetic attempts to bring him down.

The song by dance band Snap I’ve got the power was blasted back at the screws via a liberated church loudspeaker system, they’d lost control of the prison it was no longer a riot and the world’s press were camped on the doorstep.

A book detailing suppressed complaints letters of inmates to their parents reporting the abuse and beatings of the wardens was held up and a dialogue ensued, despite some of the media using the wives and girlfriends to plead for inmates come down.

A decision to kidnap Lord and lure him into a trap was hatched, claiming to be negotiating they kidnapped and hustled him out leaving Paul Taylor to take the decision to come out with the remaining prisoners after nearly 4 weeks on the roof.

Toll or score, was 147 staff injured, 47 inmates, 1 dead on either side, Woolf report into prisons too little too late. T shirts on sale outside read “Strangeways Breakout”. Both Taylor and Lord got an extra 10 years added to their sentences, Paul now works in his father’s taxi firm Birkenhead, while Alfie runs a gym after receiving a grant in Manchester. Prisons still remain overcrowded and short staffed.

I was working in Manchester at the time, recovering as the media storm blazed over rioting at Trafalgar Square, photos of people I was with on the front page expecting any moment to be sent to clink or at least deported to Russia. It all seemed bizarre, most of the shitty tabloid media underplayed it here of course, not wanting to inflame any further uprising amongst the work slaves outside.

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