Lewes Prison sees rise in assaults on staff, report finds
An IMB spokesperson said issues persisted despite better living conditions at the prison, with prisoners spending more time out of their cells and more opportunities for education and exercise.Nick Fairclough, IMB Lewes vice-chairman, said there was "clear evidence that the prison has become a better place".He added: "However, the board is still concerned about high levels of violence and rates of prisoner self-harm, though we welcome some recent signs of improvement."Prison officers also felt required to use force against prisoners in 25% more incidents, amounting to 721 cases, the report found.
'Significant challenges'
The IMB added it was concerned about the high proportion of cases involving force against younger prisoners and prisoners from minority ethnic backgrounds.A third of incidents involving force were against prisoners from a Caribbean, African or other black background but there was no evidence of bias or prejudice, the report said.Problems with heating and hot water supply meant that the prison had at times been "unacceptably hot or cold" for prisoners and staff alike, the report added.Other issues in the report included a lack of CCTV in areas of the prison and "significant challenges" with illicit items.Items worth more than £1.5m including drugs and mobile phones were intercepted at the prison, with 35% more weapons and nearly double the amount of "illicitly brewed alcohol" also seized.Issues with mental health were also raised, with the prison having no psychiatrist for most of summer 2024, the report found.The Prison Service added: "We are pleased the IMB has recognised the progress being made at HMP Lewes."But we know more needs to be done and are ramping up efforts to tackle the root causes of violence including through landmark sentencing reforms to reduce pressure on our prisons."A report in May 2024 from HM Inspectorate of Prisons said HMP Lewes was "trapped" in a cycle of rising violence, self-harm and drug problems.The report stated that only a third of prisoners were engaged in education or employment and while the institution had "clear plans to improve", many inmates spent just two hours a day out of their cells or as little as 90 minutes working.
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The award-winning The Trial podcast series on the Southport murders is available now 'Furthermore, his ability, unhindered, to access gravely violent material on the internet, to order knives online at a young age, and then to leave home unsupervised to commit the present attack, speaks to a wholesale and general failure to intervene effectively, or indeed at all, to address the risks that he posed,' Sir Adrian said. Opening the hearings into last July's attacks, Sir Adrian Fulford said Axel Rudakubana perpetrated 'an almost unimaginable but nonetheless mercilessly calculated' killing spree when he went on the rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance club. Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, died in the attack, which also left eight other children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes seriously injured. They, and another 16 children who were at the club, also suffered significant psychological trauma, Sir Adrian said. Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time, was given a life sentence, with a minimum term of 52 years - one of the highest minimum terms on record - after pleading guilty to the murders and attempted murders, plus other offences, in January. Soon afterwards, Sir Adrian, a former vice-president of the Court of Appeal, was appointed by the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to carry out a 'forensic investigation' into the events on July 29. He said it was 'truly critical' that the inquiry gets answers for the families of Rudakubana's victims and makes recommendations to prevent anything similar happening in the future. The hearings will examine why several agencies, including the police, the courts, the NHS and social services, who all had contact with Rudakubana, failed to identify the risk he posed. It will also investigate whether the attack could or should have been prevented. Three separate referrals were made to Prevent, the Government's counter-terror programme, about Rudakubana's behaviour, between December 2019 and April 2021, as well as six separate calls to police. A review into the Prevent referrals, published in February, found he posed sufficient risk to keep his cases active but too much focus was placed on a lack of distinct ideology and they were closed prematurely. The inquiry will draw on evidence from interviews with witnesses and disclosure from 15 organisations, including MI5, Counter-Terrorism Policing, NHS England and Merseyside Police. Sir Adrian said 'for the benefit of the victims and their families' Rudakubana would not be named during the hearings, but instead be referred to as 'the perpetrator' or by his initials, AR. He also read out the names of the three girls who died and the 23 ciphers - the letters or numbers - that the inquiry is using for the ones who survived, but whose anonymity is protected. He has also urged the media not to use the mugshot of Rudakubana, issued by Merseyside police, in their reporting of the inquiry because of the 'distress' it caused to the young survivors. He said he had spoken to relatives of the girls present at the dance class, who had told him they found repeated use of it to be 'terrifying.' 'Seeing the face of the perpetrator, often without any warning, has the potential to be significantly retraumatising,' Sir Adrian said. He added that the continued use of the mugshot also risked 'disrupting the process of rebuilding broken lives.' As part of a moving tribute, those seated in the inquiry chamber, at Liverpool Town Hall, where the hearings are being held, were also asked to stand for a minute's silence to remember Alice, Elsie and Bebe. 'The perpetrator is responsible for one of the most egregious crimes in our country's history,' Sir Adrian said. 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Sir Adrian added: 'We need to understand what went wrong and thereafter identify and implement the most effective measures to ensure, to the extent that we are able, that there is no repetition. 'As a society we are not helpless when confronted with individuals who are known to be contemplating acts of such depravity and although no solution will be foolproof, we can identify all of the robust steps which should be taken to protect ourselves, and particularly the most vulnerable, from horrors of this kind. 'This must be undertaken at speed, to provide answers for the victims and their families and to identify all of the changes that urgently need to be made.' Sir Adrian pointed out that the Prime Minister Keir Starmer previously said that Southport 'must be a line in the sand' and that 'nothing would be off the table' for the inquiry to investigate. The chairman said he was determined that the hearings would 'not turn into an exercise of papering over the cracks' but would act as a 'real engine for change.' He also said that the present Crime and Policing Bill, which has passed its second reading in the House of Commons, includes the provision of Youth Diversion Orders, which are aimed at anyone aged under 22 that is involved in terrorist offending, in order to 'divert them from the wider criminal justice system', including prosecution. But he pointed out that Rudakubana's crimes were not terror-related and the inquiry will, therefore, look closely at whether the State should be able to impose restrictions on individuals if there is strong evidence that they intend to commit serious violent crimes per se. Measures such as imposing curfews, tags, or placing restrictions on their movement or ability to use the internet and social media, or to require psychological intervention until the risk is deemed to have been reduced. Sir Adrian said he expected all organisations and witnesses taking part in the hearings to be candid and 'frank' and to 'volunteer information about errors' and things which went wrong. He said he expected his first report on the first phase of the inquiry to be completed by early next year at the latest. Rachael Wong, director at law firm Bond Turner, representing the three bereaved families, said they would be doing all they could to help Sir Adrian get to the 'truth.' 'We know that nothing the inquiry reveals or subsequently recommends will change the unimaginable loss felt by the families of Elsie, Alice and Bebe, but we all now have a responsibility to ensure that something like this never happens again,' she said. 'We will be doing all we can to assist the chair through the inquiry and uncover the truth. 'It is only through intense public scrutiny that real change can be effected.' Impact statements from parents of four child survivors will be read to the inquiry tomorrow. The hearings will then be adjourned until September, when more statements from the remaining relatives of victims and survivors will continue. The second phase will look at the more wider 'troubling trend' of children being drawn into extreme violence and what can be done to reverse this, the chairman added. The widespread rioting and civil unrest following the murders is not being examined by the inquiry.
