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UK: Inquiry into Wormwood Scrubs "abuses"

01 March 1998

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The Prison Service has begun an inquiry into allegations that prisoners were beaten, racially abused and tortured at Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London. The inquiry was announced after a dossier of complaints, alleging that a group of about twenty prison officers had systematically assaulted at least eight inmates, was handed to the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham. These allegations received support from the Board of Visitors' annual report, published in March, which expressed "serious concern" at "inmate allegations of abuse by officers." The jail, which holds almost 1,400 remand and sentenced prisoners, received further criticism from David Shaw, of the Prison Reform Trust, who said he was receiving more and more complaints about conditions at the jail, many of which had been confirmed by an inspection at the beginning of the year.

Independent 20.3.98.

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