UK: Zahid Mubarek Inquiry report published
01 May 2006
The public inquiry into the murder of Zahid Mubarek at HM YOI Feltham in March 2001 has published its final report. The inquiry resulted from a protracted legal battle by Zahid's family to force the Home Office to hold a public inquiry into Zahid's death. The inquiry commenced in 2004. The inquiry's starting point was that racism was central to its concerns - not solely because Zahid had been killed by his cellmate, a known racist, but because of the fact that it was indeed well?known that Robert Stewart was a violent racist - and the issue therefore to be determined was whether explicit or unwitting racism had played a part in the decision to pair Zahid with Stewart, in full knowledge of his history. By the time of Zahid's death, the Prison Service was not in a position to deny knowledge of Stewart's racist beliefs - a letter full of racist invective had been intercepted by Feltham staff - who told him merely to rewrite it so that it could be sent out. Feltham had already received damning reports from HM Prisons Inspectorate in 1995 and 1998, (see
Statewatch Vol. 15 no 2, Vol. 13 no 5, Vol 12 no 2, Vol 11 no 5, Vol 10 no 2 & 6).
The inquiry concluded as follows:-
Cell-sharing: The most obvious and dramatic way of reducing in-cell prisoner-on-prisoner attacks is by eliminating cell-sharing. Enforced cell-sharing should be eliminated and the achievement of this goal should be a high priority. If current funding is insufficient, central government should allocate further funds to eliminate enforced cell-sharing. While such moves are implemented, prisoners who have to cell-share should if possible be of common ethnic/religious background. Decisions on cell-shares should be made if possible by a senior officer, and compatibility regularly reviewed.
Reducing risk in cells: The Prison Service should formulate a policy about the most appropriate from of furniture for use in-cell, balancing the need to keep prisoners safe from their cellmates with the need to maintain a measure of homeliness. The Prison Service should take a fresh look at its cell search policy, with the emphasis of more regular cell searches rather than the daily fabric checks (designed to detect escape attempts.) Cells should be searched at least once every three months.Every prison should have a functioning elected prisoner council to provide prisoners with a say in the way prisons are run, as an incentive to ensure prisons are safe.
The flow and use of information: The report concludes that for the six weeks that Stewart remained in a cell with Zahid, almost all the wing staff had no knowledge of Stewart's racism, his possible involvement in a murder at another Young Offenders Institution, nor his severe personality disorder. The inquiry identified severe problems as regards flow of information about prisoners, and a tendency for officers to "use their judgement" rather than read up on prisoners. The National Offender Management Service has now created a national database of offenders who come into custody or have dealings with the Probation Service. This database, NOMIS, will flag up areas of concern re racist behaviour, self-harm, risk to others etc. At present there are no plans to include security information on NOMIS, and the inquiry recommends that plans should be made to incorporate such information, or where the information is too sensitive to for wider dissemination, NOMIS should incorporate an alert system. Probation officers should ensure that necessary reports are provided to escort contractors when they collect prisoners from court, and escort contractors should have a checklist of documents required. Prisoners transferred from one prison to another should not leave unless their files are ticked off at reception in the sending establishment. The receiving establishment should be given clear reasons for transfer. Prisoners should not be admitted onto a wing without a copy of their wing file, cell-sharing risk