Authorities have regained control of one of the country’s biggest jails after a major disturbance involving hundreds of inmates.

Specialist riot squads were deployed to HMP Birmingham to tackle the disorder that lasted more than 12 hours on Friday.



Trouble spread across four wings of the privately run facility, with reports of prisoners setting fire to stairwells, breaking a security chain and destroying paper records.

Specially trained prison guards, known as “Tornado” squads, from other parts of the country were backed up by about 25 riot police as they moved into the G4S-run jail, which has a capacity of 1,450 prisoners.

The trouble started at about 9am on Friday and spread from two to four wings by the evening, according to sources, with reports of prisoners burning and destroying their files. It is understood that about 260 prisoners were involved. One prisoner is understood to have received a broken jaw during the disturbances.

Jeering and shouting could be heard into the evening from inside the jail, with smoke rising from the roof, apparently from fires lit inside the building.

Prisoners caught in the middle of the disturbance spoke of their fear they might be attacked by the other prisoners. One prisoner said others had tried unsuccessfully to force their way on to his wing.

Speaking through his solicitor, the prisoner, who is on the jail’s G wing, known as the protected wing for inmates accused or convicted of sex offences, said: “The others have been trying to get in here. We’re terrified.”

All prison officers have been accounted for and none was injured, a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said.



Earlier on Friday evening, the managing director for G4S custodial and detention services, Jerry Petherick, said: “Our teams withdrew following a disturbance and sealed two wings, which include some administrative offices. The disturbance has since spread to two further wings.



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“Additional officers have arrived on site and we have deployed canine units within the prison. West Midlands police helicopter is also in attendance. We are working with colleagues across the service to bring this disturbance to a safe conclusion.”

The situation, in which keys giving access to residential prison areas were taken from an officer, will be investigated thoroughly, the justice secretary said.

Liz Truss said: “I want to pay tribute to the bravery and dedication of the prison officers who resolved this disturbance … Violence in our prisons will not be tolerated and those responsible will face the full force of the law.”

Prison affairs academic and blogger Alex Cavendish said an “inside informant” told him the trouble started with lights being broken and prisoners controlling fire hoses. “The officers were then, as they are instructed to do, trying to get as many prisoners locked in their cells as possible to contain it,” he said. “While one of the officers was putting a prisoner in the cell, he was threatened with what appeared to be a used syringe.”

Cavendish said that while this officer was distracted by the threat, “another inmate came up behind, snatched the keys from his belt and snapped the security chain”. He said that once prisoners have control of the keys, protocol tells the officers to “withdraw to a place of safety” and said they “abandoned the wing” where the incident started.

A spokesman for the Prison Governors’ Association said: “It would appear, on the face of it, that the private sector has now been infected with the same disease that has had such a debilitating impact on the running of public sector prisons: an erosion of respect and a disregard for authority which has emboldened prisoners across both the public and private sector. Any suggestion that this riot is evidence that the staffing levels in public sector prisons are not a factor, or an insignificant one, is too simplistic.”

The national chairman of the POA prison officers’ union, Mike Rolfe, said the incident was “another stark warning to the Ministry of Justice that the service is in crisis”.

POA members held protests outside jails around the country in November over health and safety concerns.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Canine units were deployed within the prison. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, had said that the disturbances at the Birmingham jail were “hugely concerning”. The Labour MP said: “It must be hoped that order can be swiftly and peacefully restored. This is only the latest in a number of disturbances across the prison estate. The justice secretary is failing to get this crisis under control.”

The Victorian category B jail, which was built in 1849 and is close to the city centre, can hold 1,450 adult remand and sentenced male prisoners.

A spokesman for the West Midlands ambulance service said it was called to the prison at 12.23pm. A hazardous area response team was in attendance, together with an ambulance and paramedic area support officer.

A former prisoner who was released in January told the Press Association that drugs were rife in the jail and there was a lack of respect between some staff and prisoners.



The man, who declined to give his name, said each of the jail’s wings was arranged over four floors, with more than 100 prisoners per wing.

It is the third disturbance in English prisons in less than two months. On 6 November, a riot at the category B Bedford prison caused chaos when up to 200 prisoners flooded the jail’s gangways. On 29 October, a national response unit had to be brought in to control prisoners during an incident at HMP Lewes in East Sussex.

There has been a string of warnings about safety behind bars after statistics revealed soaring levels of violence in jails in England and Wales, with assaults on staff up by 43% in the year to June.

Last month, the justice secretary, Liz Truss, unveiled her plans for prison reform, with measures including a recruitment drive to add 2,500 officers to the frontline and “no-fly zones” to stop drones dropping drugs and other contraband into prisons.