Riot at Bedford Prison

Bedford Prison Riot

16th February 2019

A specialist team of highly trained officers were called to deal with a riot at HMP Bedford at around 1500 hours with support from Bedfordshire Police.

Emergency vehicles lined up across the front of the prison during Saturday afternoon and a prisoner transport van was turned away just after 1700 hours

Bedford prison is in a very, very bad state of repair internally and a specialist team of pest controllers have not been able to put a stop to a massive infestation of rats within the site. Notices have been put on doors saying "Please keep closed to stop rats getting onto the wings".

The prisoners morale within the prison is very low and officers have reported being afraid to go to work due to the risk of violent attacks on staff on a daily basis.

The Prison service issued a media statement saying that trouble flared up at around 1435 hours on Saturday 16th February and Tornado specialist riot team were called in. The unrest was apparently contained on one wing of the prison and no staff were reported injured. 

The Ministry of Justice reported that everything was settled and peaceful by 2100 hours, however we were still outside the prison at 2230 hours and two mini coaches, a full sized coach and police cars were still present. Dogs could be heard barking and men were shouting behind the wall of the prison at the Balsall Street West end of the establishment at 2235 hours.

Transport mini coaches waiting outside Bedford Prison at 2230 on Saturday night presumably to transport Tornado officers after they had dealt with the disturbances within the prison.

No doubt the incident, just like many others has clearly been played down by The Ministry of Justice in order to cover the terrible state of our prisons. There are men in that prison who are someone's dads, husbands and sons, there are also staff working there that need to feel safe in their duties and The Ministry of Justice MUST address this as a matter of urgency!!

It is all well and good for The Prison Service to say "anyone instigating trouble like this will be punished in the most severe manner" but, we need to bring peace within establishments such as Bedford and make conditions for the prisoners held there better. 

Heavy police presence outside Bedford Prison on Saturday night during the disturbance

Some of you will say things like "They committed crime they deserve it" but that is not true. There are many in the prisons that are there because they suffer from mental health conditions and have suffered abuse from parents, bullies, etc. The punishment is the loss of liberty NOT being treated worse than an animal once incarcerated and we need to recognise that and respect it.

I can tell you from personal experience that since the prison estates went smoke free and reduced the amount of hours that prisoners were actively involved in work and time out of cell things have progressively deteriorated. The whole prison estate is like a tinder box waiting to go up and it only takes 2 or 3 establishments to go off at the same time and the Tornado teams won't be able to handle it to bring things back under control. If the prison service do not act soon there will be loss of life and dangerous people escaping.

I urge anyone reading this to write to your local MP and demand that he/she get behind sorting out the dreadful and dangerous state of our prisons before things escalate out of hand completely.