Terrorist prisoners will be placed in ‘supermax’ style prison units under new plans to improve the safety of jail staff.
Justice Secretary David Lammy said he will examine creating tougher new ‘separation centres’ inspired by the notoriously harsh U.S. jails.
He also announced a review of how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is used by extremist prisoners to challenge the way they are handled in jail, including their segregation from other inmates.
Mr Lammy said a review into last year’s incident at HMP Frankland, in County Durham, showed improvements were needed.
The report by the Government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, looked at operation of the three existing separation centres in England and Wales, at Frankland; Full Sutton, near York; and Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
Mr Hall’s review, published today, said: ‘During my current review I saw tracts circulated justifying the killing prison imams and read reports of direct threats to staff by prisoners describing themselves as “soldiers”.’
But he concluded there were ‘strong reasons why supermax categorisation is not the right response to the Abedi attack’.
The ADX (administrative maximum) Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado, is a state of the art isolation prison for repeat and high profile offenders in the U.S.
Hashem Abedi, from Fallowfield, south Manchester, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 55 years in August 2020 after he was found guilty of 22 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. He is now accused of a further violent attack on prison guards.
HMP Frankland in County Durham where Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi allegedly attacked three prison guards with hot cooking oil last year
Instead he recommended the creation of a ‘tiered separation centre system, with all separation centre units brought within a single prison’.
Prisoners would be able to move up to tiers offering better conditions and privileges – such as access to cooking facilities – in exchange for good behaviour, while those who caused trouble would move down to tiers with harsher conditions.
Mr Lammy told MPs he will look at the ‘creation of new tougher supermax-style units for the most violent, disruptive prisoners’.
‘This will be a tiered system, with movement between tiers only permitted following rigorous new risk assessments,’ he said.
However, the Government said it would aim to have ‘multiple separation centre sites’ rather than concentrate them in one jail.
Mr Hall’s review concluded ministers should ‘take steps to limit the application of Article 8 of the ECHR … so that it does not apply to placement within a separation centre’.
But despite his conclusion, Mr Lammy announced a further review of Article 8, the ‘right to private and family life’.
It will look at whether a law change is required to limit prisoners’ ability to bring human rights challenges.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has announced work on introducing supermax-style prison units and a review of how Article 8 of the ECHR is used by inmates
In one such case last year the High Court ruled a convicted terrorist had his rights breached by being kept away from other prisoners. Some prisoners have won significant pay-outs.
Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said Labour’s promises on Article 8 contained ‘nothing concrete’, adding: ‘The simple truth is, as long as we remain in the ECHR, he can’t guarantee a thing, and that is why we must leave.’
The Conservatives have already pledged to leave the human rights convention if they win the next election.
Reform MP Robert Jenrick said: ‘If Lammy wanted to fix this crisis he’d leave the ECHR. But he doesn’t, so taxpayer money will keep going to convicted terrorists in prison.’
Abedi, who was convicted over the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people, denied the attack at HMP Frankland he appeared at the Old Bailey last year.
