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Victory for Full Sutton 'mutineers'

January 1997 saw the biggest concerted act of revolt to date against thepersistently claustrophobic and brutal regime at Full Sutton maximum securityprison. In May this year eight prisoners were acquitted of Prison Mutiny.

1995 saw huge change in the prison system. Using the Whitemoor and Parkhurstescapes as a pretext, security and harassment were massively stepped up. Atthe same time the divide-and-rule Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme andprisoner compacts were introduced and it was announced that Full Sutton wouldhost the pilot for the pin-number phonecard system, whereby prisoners have toregister numbers they wish to phone and have them cleared by security beforethey can call them. (This is now being brought in across the system.) InNovember 1995 prisoners on E wing staged a three-day work-strike against thenew measures. This peaceful protest was broken up by riot squads and up to60 prisoners shipped out to other gaols.

The final straw

More and more petty, soul-destroying restrictions were brought in anddiscontent among Full Sutton prisoners grew. On the afternoon of 20 January1997 Dessie Cunningham was taken to the segregation unit, which was alreadyfull of prisoners there on spurious pretexts. Dessie, who died tragically on31 December 1998, was a popular prisoner and when he was dragged away for noreason and beaten all the way to the block, the tolerance of prisoners on hiswing finally snapped. When C wing was unlocked that evening some prisonerssmashed up showers, TV rooms and other communal areas. The wing wasbarricaded and fires started.

B wing - the Inside Story

'Such was the pent-up anger that it really was like a dam bursting and it wasappreciated from the start that unless the destruction was near total wewould simply be locked down for a month.' - Full Sutton prisoner

The revolt on B wing began later the same evening when prisoners were orderedto bang up 40 minutes early and a far greater disturbance then took placethere, resulting in the wing being entirely destroyed. It was a matter ofhours before the flagship dispersal was being jubilantly referred to as HalfSutton.

Prisoners began to congregate in the association area. Two prison officerswere in the cleaners' office, and when two masked prisoners came towards themand began hammering on the perspex windows with mops and buckets, they beat ahasty retreat out the back. The rest of the staff quickly abandoned thewing, leaving it completely in the hands of the prisoners, who quickly put upbarricades, expecting an imminent attack by the riot squad. When it didn'tcome, they realised the wing was theirs to render unfit for continuedincarceration. Fires were lit and massive damage done to doors, gates,windows and even concrete walls. Months and years of frustration were takenout on the very fabric of the prison.

'Access to the exercise yard was gained by battering down the steel gate witha wooden door. A large fire was quickly lit out here. The Fire Brigadeattempted to extinguish it by shooting water over the roof but this was soonstopped by a salvo of door handles thrown from the exercise yard and over theroof to the outside. With the iron gate from the exercise yard it was nowpossible to quickly gain access to the rest of the wing. All the files andpapers were seized from the screws' offices and the offices gutted. We knewthat we'd all be shipped off to blocks all over the country and might not seefriends for some time. Resigned to this, an impromptu barbecue party was heldon the exercise yard, with cooking done on smouldering prison files anddecisions made on what to do.'

'The tactics of guerilla warfare are hit and run and the circumstances weresuch that by that point little would have been gained by confronting the riotsquad. So, eventually we banged up two or more to a cell, to defendourselves better against the brutality we expected to come. But it didn't. The screws were badly shaken by the scale of the damage. We could hear themsaying incredulously "Where did they get the tools from to do this? Theycan't have done it with their bare hands." 'As the tortoise of shields movedslowly round the landings - "one, two, advance" - it sounded comical. We wereexpecting a good kicking but I remember lying on the bed in the cell, howlingwith laughter. There was still an atmosphere of defiance and celebration. People shouted out abuse to the screws and jokes to one another. We werekept locked up all day and late in the afternoon they started to move peopleout one at a time. The screws were in full riot gear but they lookedterrified.'

Retribution

Prisoners from the two wings were moved to prisons across the country. Masses of prisoners' property was deliberately destroyed by vengeful screwsand the Prison Service is still dealing with outstanding civil claims fordamage.

In May 1998, after a lengthy police 'investigation', 13 men were committedfor trial. William Edmonds, who the authorities were trying to finger as amain instigator, had been released on bail, attended the committal but didnot turn up for the trial. On 27 August three C wing prisoners were convictedof prison mutiny and later sentenced to five years additional imprisonmenteach. This year the remaining nine defendants, all of whom had been on Bwing, stood trial at Newcastle Crown Court. There were seven acquittals andonly two convictions. Paul Lyons and Michael Guest were sentenced to threeand five years and both plan to appeal. Most of the seven acquitted were menthe Prison Service wanted to settle old scores with: Mark Gillan had been inthe Risley uprising, Patrick Francis, the only black prisoner to stand trial,had been at Strangeways and Stewart Bowden at both Strangeways and a'mini-mutiny' at Full Sutton in 1992. Another defendant had previouslyescaped from Frankland and tried unsuccessfully to have the Prison Serviceaction in holding him at that prison during the trial declared unreasonableand unlawful.