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Prison officer violence "part of the culture" at Portland

01 January 2004

Seven former young offenders who were assaulted by prison staff at HMP Portland have won a £120,000 pay out. The prisoners say they were punched, slapped, kicked and had their heads slammed repeatedly against the floor by segregation block officers at Portland Young Offenders Institute in Dorset. The Prison Service agreed an out-of-court settlement days before the case was due to be heard at Weymouth County Court. According to the solicitors for the seven, the police had investigated up to 53 such cases of intimidation and brutality at the jail. Nogah Ofer, for the applicants, noted "The experience in Portland has shown that children and young people in prison are intensely vulnerable to abuse that is easily hidden in such a closed environment." The seven were aged between 16 and 21 when the attacks took place. The prison's former chaplain Peter Tullett said prison chiefs turned a blind eye to violence at Portland. "Violence by prison officers against inmates was part of the culture at Portland." In a statement to have been disclosed to the court, Kevin Lockyear, governor until 2002, damned the segregation unit he inherited and stated "It was a regime run with the conscious direction of senior management; this was the regime management wanted to run." One inmate reported being punched and kicked in the back, stomach and testicles by a group of officers, then dragged screaming into a strip cell and slammed into the floor. One officer then shouted "We will keep doing this to you until you conform."

BBC News Online 22.1.04; Guardian 22.1.04; Howard League for Penal Reform.