1990 Strangeways Prison Riot - The Woolf Report

The Woolf Report

A five-month public inquiry was held into the disturbances at Strangeways and other prisons, beginning in Manchester on 11 June 1990 and ending in London on 31 October. In addition to the public inquiry, Lord Woolf and Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Stephen Tumim, also sent letters to every prisoner and prison officer in the country. 1,300 prisoners and 430 prison officers responded, with many excerpts from the letters being appended to the finished report. The Woolf Report was published on 25 February 1991, and blamed the loss of control of the prison on the prison officers abandoning the gates outside the chapel, which "effectively handed the prison to the prisoners". Woolf described the conditions inside Strangeways in the months leading up to the riot as "intolerable", and viewed a "combination of errors" by staff and management at the prison and Prison Service as a central contributing factor to the riot. He also blamed the failure of successive governments to "provide the resources to the Prison Service which were needed to enable the Service to provide for an increased prison population in a humane manner". Woolf recommended major reform of the Prison Service, and made 12 key recommendations with 204 accompanying proposals. The key recommendations were:

1. Closer cooperation between the different parts of the Criminal Justice System. For this purpose a national forum and local committees should be established.
2. More visible leadership of the Prison Service by a Director General who is and is seen to be the operational head and in day to day charge of the Service. To achieve this there should be a published "compact" or "contract" given by Ministers to the Director General of the Prison Service, who should be responsible for the performance of that "contract" and publicly answerable for the day to day operations of the Prison Service.
3. Increased delegation of responsibility to Governors of establishments.
4. An enhanced role for prison officers.
5. A "compact" or "contract" for each prisoner setting out the prisoner's expectations and responsibilities in the prison in which he or she is held
6. A national system of Accredited Standards, with which, in time, each prison establishment would be required to comply.
7. A new Prison Rule that no establishment should hold more prisoners that is provided for it its certified normal level of accommodation, with provisions for Parliament to be informed if exceptionally there is to be a material departure from that rule.
8. A public commitment from Ministers setting a timetable to provide access to sanitation for all inmates at the earliest practical date, not later than February 1996.
9. Better prospects for prisoners to maintain their links with families and the community through more visits and home leaves and through being located in community prisons as near to their homes as possible.
10. A division of prison establishments into small and more manageable and secure units.
11. A separate statement of purpose, separate conditions and generally a lower security categorisation for remand prisoners.
12. Improved standards of justice within prisons involving the giving of reasons to a prisoner for any decision which materially and adversely affects him; a grievance procedure and disciplinary proceedings which ensure that the Governor deals with most matters under his present powers; relieving Boards of Visitors of their adjudicatory role; and providing for final access to an independent Complaints Adjudicator.

The Guardian newspaper described the report as a blueprint for the restoration of "decency and justice into jails where conditions had become intolerable". Home Secretary Kenneth Baker welcomed the Woolf Report and pledged to end "slopping out" by 1994, and also accepted Woolf's recommendations for more visits, home leave and telephone calls. In contrast to his proposed reforms, Baker also proposed the introduction of a new offence of "prison mutiny" carrying a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment, stating "The events of last April marked a watershed in the history of prison service. We cannot, and will not, tolerate the savagery and vandalism in our prisons that we saw then".