- 16 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00And after a year marked by a murder and countless suicide attempts,
00:04Steve Bradshaw reports from inside Feltham Young Offenders Institution.
00:09The programme contains very strong language, which you might find offensive.
00:22They burglars, they muggers in the streets, they steal from our homes and our cars.
00:27We lock them away here in the suburbs of London, in this vast complex of Feltham.
00:32We're jailing more young criminals than almost any country in Western Europe.
00:42But prisons like Feltham aren't working.
00:47Suspensions, investigations, violence, suicides.
00:52It's an utterly miserable, horrible establishment.
00:57Tonight, Panorama tells the extraordinary story of one year
01:00behind the bars of Britain's biggest Young Offenders Institution.
01:16Over 10,000 times a year, the vans draw up
01:19and a young man walks through the doors of Feltham.
01:25A transit camp and jail for young prisoners from the south-east.
01:30Some are on remand, some have just been sentenced.
01:33They are as old as 21 and as young as 15.
01:36These older prisoners, kept separately from juveniles.
01:39Is that your birth?
01:41826, 1981.
01:42And your prison number?
01:43FP 96...
01:46Some of these young men are hardened criminals,
01:49some just boys who've made a mistake.
01:51Some are damaged and vulnerable young men
01:53who will have trouble dealing with this,
01:55their first night behind bars,
01:57as some former inmates told us.
02:02I got put into this little room on the side.
02:05You have to wait for your name to be called.
02:07When your name gets called, they give you a number,
02:09and that's what basically you are, is a number.
02:11You have a new prison number this time.
02:14Welcome back.
02:16Told you for love.
02:17And then that's it.
02:18You go get your microwave mill,
02:20and you put it into a room on the right,
02:22and then you have to wait again.
02:24And then you go through, strip search,
02:26and then you get put into a cell.
02:34I'm 15, and I went into prison.
02:37Like, I couldn't believe it.
02:40Felt like hell.
02:42You couldn't really picture it.
02:44It's somewhere you don't want to be.
02:46Just beyond reception,
02:48they face one of the few choices
02:49they'll be allowed to make for themselves.
02:52You can have a smoker's pack,
02:54or a drinker's pack.
02:55The smoking pack consists of 10 Mayfair,
02:58a box of matches,
02:59and a packet of popcorn.
03:01The non-smoking pack,
03:02which is the same price as the smoking pack,
03:04but, of course, there's no cigarettes in it.
03:05You've got some custard creams,
03:06a Kit Kat,
03:08some drink,
03:08a packet of Chewitt's,
03:09and some penny chews
03:10to make it up to the amount.
03:11Soon, inmates learn
03:13that young offenders' institutions
03:15are not all popcorn and penny chews.
03:18We've spoken to inmates inside Felton
03:20and to many who've been released.
03:22Some didn't mind being filmed,
03:24others wanted their identities concealed.
03:27They told us about their first nights here.
03:31When I first arrived into my cell,
03:35I laid on my bed
03:36and I cried myself to sleep.
03:37I was up for at least three days,
03:39really, no sleep at all,
03:40just thinking away to myself
03:41what I'd got myself into,
03:44what it was like in there,
03:45people I was meeting.
03:47Basically, I never felt safe at all.
03:49Basically, I had no one to turn to in there.
03:51You get people banging on the pipes,
03:53like, with bits of metal,
03:54like, ting, ting, ting,
03:55and you get other people shouting
03:57when they don't fucking bang on the pipes.
03:59I'll break your face and things like that.
04:01Lots of abuse, lots of cussing
04:03to your parents outside,
04:05people that you love,
04:07trying to make you feel hurt, angry,
04:08so you'd retaliate.
04:10Fights in prison,
04:11they always start with,
04:13suck your mum.
04:13If someone says to you, suck your mum,
04:15they're basically telling you, like,
04:17they want to fight you.
04:26Oi, oi, oi, number seven!
04:28Seven, seven on the ones.
04:30Oi, oi, number seven.
04:31Yeah.
04:32Suck your fucking mum, you prick!
04:35What?
04:36I said, suck your mum.
04:39What?
04:40Right, that's it,
04:41you're fucking getting it, mate.
04:45It was shout-out number six.
04:47Come up to your window.
04:49He went up to his window and said,
04:50please don't say things about my mum.
04:53And he goes, what?
04:54Why not?
04:55He goes, because she's dead.
04:57Then he just went, oh,
04:58suck your mum, RIP.
05:00Do you know what I mean?
05:01Things like that.
05:02Just makes people feel shitty.
05:05I couldn't sleep,
05:06so I had to make myself sleep,
05:08and that was by knocking myself out
05:09against the wall,
05:10which I was seen by a doctor after a while.
05:13What did you do?
05:14I used to head back to the wall,
05:15just order to get a bit of sleep
05:17until I passed out.
05:18Why don't the officers on duty at night
05:19stop the bullying?
05:23It's huge.
05:24You've got to bear in mind
05:26that when you stick your head out the window at night,
05:28it's a chorus of many conversations
05:34that are taking place.
05:36If it's heard, it's stopped.
05:38But when you stick your head out the window,
05:41there is just banter.
05:43A message could be passed across that establishment
05:45in minutes from window to window.
05:47The kids who shout from windows
05:49call themselves window warriors.
05:51They try and bully new inmates
05:53into singing nursery rhymes.
05:54If they give in, they're bullied even more.
05:58Window warriors is where people in the prison know
06:00that don't mess with him
06:02because he's top boy.
06:04He'll stab you.
06:06He'll beat you up.
06:07You have a choice.
06:08You're either fighting
06:09or you're going to sing a song.
06:11And some people are weaker than others.
06:13They'll sing.
06:15They're getting to sing all kinds of songs
06:16nursery rhymes.
06:17Twinkle, twinkle little star
06:19and Mary had a little lamb and stuff like that.
06:22Bah, bah, black sheep.
06:23Bah, bah, black sheep.
06:24Have you any more?
06:26It's just on and on.
06:27It's just until, on and on,
06:29until he's even finished the song
06:31and they say, sing it again,
06:32and sing it again, sing it again.
06:34They're singing it again,
06:35and again, and again,
06:36and again,
06:37until they turn around and say,
06:38I ain't singing it.
06:38And then they end up getting into a fight.
06:42You can't get away from it.
06:43You're in a cell hearing it
06:45for sometimes the duration of the night.
06:47I mean, this is real psychological damage.
06:50These are kids that are absolutely desperate
06:52because they can't get away from it.
06:54These are kids that are,
06:56yeah, they feel there is nothing that I can do.
07:04Next morning, a bizarre wake-up call.
07:07The peacocks introduced
07:08when the prison's wings were named after birds
07:10in the hope it would help young people cope.
07:15By now, new arrivals have entered a world of distressed,
07:18disturbed and sometimes violent young men.
07:21In the segregation unit,
07:22volatile prisoners can be held on a strict regime
07:25for up to three days.
07:27This young man stands before the prison
07:29new governor,
07:30accused of wrecking his cell on Swallowwind.
07:33Being an idiot there will be wise,
07:35smash the sink off the wall,
07:36stating that he did not want to stay on Swallowwind.
07:40You didn't want to stay on Swallowwind.
07:41What was the problem there?
07:43I just don't like it on there, sir.
07:45You've pleaded guilty.
07:46I find the charge proved.
07:47Is there anything else you wish to say in mitigation?
07:49Why I should be more lenient with you?
07:52You count me around smashing the sink off the wall, can you?
07:54No, sir.
07:55I've won't have nowhere to wash, will I?
07:56No.
07:58Ten perspective alley days, three days cellular confinement,
08:01seven days no pain, seven days no canteen.
08:03Thanks, sir.
08:07I don't know why he did it.
08:09He says he doesn't want to be on that unit,
08:12but he didn't offer any explanation.
08:14If he'd said to me,
08:15I was getting bullied by other kids,
08:17OK, I take that into account.
08:18I will inquire further into that.
08:20But he didn't give me an in,
08:22so I've got to leave it now.
08:23I know hopefully that other staff
08:25will try and get some rational explanation from it.
08:28In the segregation yard,
08:30an hour of exercise and fresh air.
08:33But when it comes to separating more seriously violent prisoners
08:36from the vulnerable ones,
08:37there have been terrible mistakes in Feltham.
08:40Our story of a year of failure begins in January 2000,
08:44when one violent 20-year-old prisoner arrived through its gates.
08:48Robert Stewart was a young man with a criminal record
08:51and a tattoo on his forehead that read R.I.P.
08:58Reports from other prisons described him as strange
09:01and a disaster waiting to happen.
09:03He had tried to flood his cell,
09:06been seen eating metal screws,
09:07and set fire to himself.
09:10He had threatened prisoners with a chair leg
09:12and stabbed an inmate below the eye.
09:18When Stewart arrived at Feltham
09:20from a prison in the north,
09:21he was accompanied by a prisoner escort record
09:24with details of his extraordinary behaviour.
09:30But nobody, it seems, looked through his file
09:33and he wasn't seen by a medical officer.
09:37From my conversations with him,
09:39I don't believe he was seen by a psychiatrist
09:42or any medical officer.
09:45I don't believe he was asked many questions
09:48about his past or...
09:50So there was very little screening,
09:52as far as I'm aware.
09:55I believe that he just arrived,
09:56he was placed in a cell,
09:57and that's where he remained.
09:59How it was missed,
10:00there was probably far too many prisoners coming through
10:05for all the work to be done properly.
10:08There were other clues to the disaster in the making.
10:10As well as being violent,
10:12Stewart was an obsessive letter writer.
10:15Since he was on a harassment charge,
10:17his letters should, according to prison rules,
10:19have been carefully monitored.
10:22But Stewart was treated like other prisoners,
10:24most of whose letters were not regularly checked.
10:30One letter, though, was intercepted by Feltham,
10:33and it revealed another disturbing side to Stewart.
10:35In this and other letters,
10:37he wrote about niggers.
10:39There were, he said,
10:40a lot of niggers on the wing.
10:42But the rest of his letters
10:43still weren't checked as they should have been.
10:45The intercepted letter was simply returned,
10:48and a note about it made on Stewart's wing flimsy,
10:51a running record of his stay in Feltham.
10:54Because that letter was of a racist nature,
10:58I believe they should have,
10:59at least at that stage,
11:00started monitoring his mail
11:02and done something about that, definitely.
11:06Each wing in Feltham also keeps an observation book.
11:09The same day the racist letter was intercepted,
11:12someone on Stewart's wing wrote,
11:14very dangerous individual, be careful.
11:18The very dangerous Stewart was moved to another wing, Swallow.
11:21Fellow inmates told us they realised
11:23something was wrong with Stewart.
11:26He obviously had a problem.
11:27It could have been affected by other people
11:28because he just looked off-key, to be honest, if he did.
11:31He looked like he had some mental problems.
11:33How do you mean?
11:35Well, would you tattoo R.I.P. on your head?
11:38Your forehead?
11:39It's not really the damn thing, is it, really?
11:42I even spoke to him, I addressed him on it.
11:44I said, why have you got R.I.P. written on your head?
11:45And he said to me, boom,
11:46that he was drunk and some girl did it.
11:51To me, he looked, like, I don't know.
11:54He didn't look all there.
11:55He looked crazy, like, with the tattoos.
11:58And I thought, like, this guy looks, like, a bit different.
12:03The warnings that Stewart was very dangerous
12:06and had written a racist letter
12:07should have been passed on to Swallow Wing with him.
12:10But if they were, nobody acted on them.
12:13On 8th February, the violent prisoner
12:15who had written a racist letter
12:17was put in a cell with a young Asian.
12:20They were together six weeks.
12:25Prisoners who remembered them said they seemed to get on OK,
12:28but should never have shared a cell.
12:30They didn't look like the sort of people that I'd pair up together.
12:33I think it was lack of thinking on the subject.
12:37They just tend to just bang you up.
12:38They don't think about it.
12:39If it weren't a specific set-up, yeah, it was just misconduct.
12:43They should have thought about it
12:44before they teed up people, basically.
12:47Stewart's cellmate was 19-year-old Zahid Mubarak.
12:51Zahid lived in East London.
12:53He'd been charged with theft
12:54and had been sentenced to 90 days.
12:57He was a quiet guy, kept himself to himself, really.
13:00He was, um...
13:02He was a threat to no-one.
13:04I couldn't see him getting into any trouble with anyone
13:06unless someone specifically troubled him.
13:08Do you know what I'm saying?
13:08Even then, you couldn't even probably feel himself,
13:10to be honest with you.
13:12Among the prison officers nominated to look after Zahid
13:15and Stewart's welfare were their so-called personal officers,
13:19a job one prison governor said should be vital.
13:22We have established the two young men
13:24had the same personal officers,
13:25one of them, Claire Bigger.
13:28It's unclear whether they and other officers on the wing
13:31had access to records of Stewart's violent past
13:34and racist letters.
13:36What's certain is nothing was done about them.
13:41Meanwhile, Stewart's letters,
13:42which were still not being intercepted,
13:44were becoming more violent.
13:46We have obtained copies of some of the letters
13:49he wrote in his cell,
13:50just a few feet away from Zahid,
13:52who he called his padmate.
13:53On the 23rd of February, Stewart wrote,
13:56I'll take extreme medges to get shipped out,
13:59kill me fucking padmate if I have to,
14:01bleach me sheets and pillowcase white
14:03and make a Klu Klux Klan outfit.
14:08He also sketched a swastika,
14:10but once again the letters were not monitored.
14:13On March the 20th,
14:14the day before his cellmate was due to be released,
14:17the tone of Stewart's letters became increasingly deranged.
14:20He referred admiringly to them who killed Stephen Lawrence
14:23and threatened,
14:25Gonna nail-bomb Bradford.
14:27Eight foreigners and non-whites.
14:33On the night he wrote those last letters,
14:35Stewart finally snapped.
14:38He battered his cellmate with a leg torn from the cell table.
14:46At 25 to 4, Stewart pressed the cell alarm,
14:49a support officer looked through the flap
14:51and saw Zahid bleeding profusely.
14:56The officer, who had a radio, didn't use it.
14:59Instead, he went to telephone for help.
15:02When help arrived, Zahid, covered in blood,
15:06was still breathing.
15:09Stewart, who said his padmate had had an accident,
15:12was calm and quiet.
15:13He was taken to the segregation cells,
15:16where he wrote on the walls,
15:17just killed me padmate,
15:19R.I.P.
15:21and other words that couldn't be deciphered.
15:30Zahid died a week later in hospital.
15:34And then we found out that he died in hospital.
15:37That scared the life out of me.
15:39I was only a couple of doors away,
15:41like, how safe am I?
15:43I could be in a cell with someone
15:44and they could just kill me.
15:46There was a different atmosphere after that.
15:50Everyone, like, checked out who everyone was
15:54properly first before, like,
15:56everyone before you, like, you're moving to a cell.
15:59Robert Stewart was convicted of murder.
16:02But the prison service agrees management failures
16:05also had a role in Zahid's death.
16:08Do you accept responsibility for the death of this young man?
16:11Yes, I do.
16:13What lessons have you learned?
16:15A number of lessons.
16:16First of all, that we need to do a much better job
16:19of distilling the information we have available.
16:21There was no excuse at all
16:23for us putting Robert Stewart in a cell with Zahid Mubarak.
16:26I made that absolutely plain to Zahid's father.
16:30No excuse at all, and the consequences were disastrous.
16:34In fact, I would go further than that.
16:36There was no excuse for putting Robert Stewart
16:38in a cell with anybody.
16:39It wasn't just the fact that he was patently racist,
16:42but his behaviour was such that he should have suggested to us
16:46that no-one was safe to be in a cell with him.
16:48We failed appallingly.
16:54The prison service set up an internal investigation
16:56into the murder at Feltham.
16:59Among those who gave evidence was a GP
17:01who'd worked at Feltham's clinic.
17:04He saw the mistakes that led to Zahid's murder
17:06as the realisation of his worst fears
17:09about the way Feltham was being run.
17:13I think it's a terribly familiar story,
17:16and this could have happened four years ago,
17:19six years ago, eight years ago.
17:21I think that the ingredients for these disasters
17:24and these very sad situations
17:28were certainly there all the time that I worked in Feltham.
17:32For over three years, Jefferies had been writing letters
17:35warning of sloppy standards at Feltham.
17:37He'd complained management was dismissive of his concerns.
17:42Dismissive of the inmates, dismissive of their medical problems,
17:45dismissive of the risks that were part of the package
17:50of a young person being imprisoned.
17:52Dismissive of children's safety, are you saying,
17:55to be really clear what you're saying?
17:58Well...
17:58It's a serious allegation.
18:00Yes, it is a serious allegation,
18:02and I think that I would not have spent so much time
18:04writing so many letters as a matter of record
18:06to demonstrate my concern and my anxiety
18:10about the standards of care that were being delivered in Feltham.
18:15Jefferies left Feltham in April.
18:18But there was to be another, more dramatic departure.
18:22With the courts placing even higher numbers of young people in jails,
18:25it was becoming a political priority
18:28to make sure they were held in decent conditions.
18:31Over £6 million was spent refurbishing cells
18:34and building new education and reception blocks for juveniles.
18:39For the first time, people who thought they could change kids' lives
18:43rather than manage constant crises
18:45were optimistic about the future.
18:48At last, I believed that we were getting a chance
18:52to do the very things that I joined the prison service for,
18:57to make a difference with these kids,
18:58to actually have a chance of sending them out
19:04less likely to commit another crime.
19:06But the courts continued,
19:07sending more and more young people to jail.
19:12Last summer, Feltham's juvenile wings began to overflow
19:15with prisoners on remand and on sentence.
19:17Result was a juvenile centre capable of looking after 180,
19:22resourced to look after 180,
19:24being asked to deal with sometimes 310.
19:29The overspill put into dire accommodation with nothing to do.
19:37Youngsters aged 16 and 17
19:39were now moved from the juvenile wings
19:41to the over-18 wing, Kestrel.
19:44As juveniles, they were supposed to have
19:46more than 10 hours out of their cell a day,
19:48but on Kestrel, over 100 boys were to be locked up,
19:51sometimes for 20 hours or more,
19:53in conditions that would have been unacceptable
19:55on the juvenile wing.
20:02Kestrel's just about the worst unit that we've got at Feltham.
20:06It was decided to put the juveniles into that unit,
20:09which I found totally ridiculous.
20:13Inmates from across Felton told us
20:15about being locked in a cell almost all day.
20:21Filthy, dirty, get treated different,
20:26locked away 23 hours a day.
20:28It's scary, really, just in a dark cell,
20:30just with a bed in there, a toilet and a sink, really,
20:33that was it at the time.
20:35And I just sat there, really, just on my bed.
20:37Banged up for about 23 and a half hours a day.
20:39You can't do nothing.
20:40You're walking around a 10-foot-by-6-foot square
20:43all day long doing nothing.
20:45You're there, and you ain't gonna get let out
20:48to go out and play if you beg.
20:51You're just locked up,
20:53and there's nothing you can do about it.
20:54When you get so depressed,
20:56and you just ain't got the will to live no more,
20:58you just think, fuck it.
21:01A lot of young men in Felton are already unstable.
21:04It's been estimated as many as 8 out of 10
21:07have some kind of mental disorder,
21:09and some of those with little will to live
21:11have developed macabre solutions.
21:15There was a culture of hanging.
21:17Young people, as soon as they came into the prison,
21:20I think, were probably telling each other
21:24how to hang themselves.
21:25They would stand on the pipes.
21:27They would wait for an officer to come round,
21:30and then they would jump
21:32and hope that the officer would see them.
21:39One former inmate showed us he knew
21:42how to make a noose in a matter of seconds.
21:46Techniques, like the one we're only showing part of here,
21:49are passed from prisoner to prisoner.
21:51It was a kind of cat-and-mouse game
21:54between the young people and the officers,
21:56but it was a dangerous and at times deadly game
22:00they were playing.
22:02Yeah?
22:04Anyone else got any more, then?
22:05To combat the culture of hanging,
22:08Felton has developed a course in stress and suicide awareness.
22:12Children as young as 15 are told who to talk to
22:14and how to spot early warning signs in others.
22:18They're told about the risks of long periods of solitude.
22:21Any more that you can think of.
22:23There's a lot of stuff that you can actually do
22:25to occupy your minds, isn't there?
22:26And if we don't occupy our minds...
22:32You know what I mean?
22:33Death is the bottom line.
22:35There's also a suicide intervention pack on each wing.
22:38Right in it, the most important piece of equipment
22:41that we've got is a resusse.
22:43Yeah, if you find them unconscious.
22:46There's a pair of scissors to actually cut anybody down
22:49and remove lichures from the neck.
22:51The reason they're actually bent as well
22:52is so we don't actually cut into them.
22:54As well as that, we have a hook,
22:55which is almost like a knife.
22:57It's used by just pulling it down
22:59and actually cutting away any sheets of blankets.
23:02Because we're dealing with blood a lot of the time,
23:04we've actually got the rubber gloves
23:07and we've got bandages.
23:09Have you had to use this yourself?
23:10I have. I've had to use it four or five times.
23:12As we're in the induction unit,
23:14people are the most vulnerable
23:15if it's their first couple of days into custody.
23:17You've had to use it on children of what ages?
23:19Yeah, between 15 and 18 years of age.
23:28On Raven Wynn, as we filmed,
23:30a code one or suicide alert.
23:35The prison says suicide and self-harm attempts
23:38have fallen this year.
23:41But code one alerts are still so frequent
23:43they cause little surprise.
23:46We've just had an incident here
23:48where a code one,
23:49which is known as a hanging incident,
23:51a young Kurdish lad
23:53decided that he would hang himself
23:55or at least try to.
23:59We would have roughly 20 a week, easily,
24:02that staff have to deal with.
24:05How many attempts at self-harm
24:08or suicide
24:09did you come across in Felton?
24:11An uncountable number
24:13of episodes of self-harm
24:15whilst I worked there.
24:17Uncountable?
24:18Uncountable.
24:20Well, by week?
24:23I think by the day.
24:25There were phases, certainly,
24:27when I worked in Felton,
24:28where we would have
24:3010 or 15 episodes in a day.
24:34As the court sent increasing numbers
24:36of young people
24:37into this difficult environment last summer,
24:39managers at Felton warned their own bosses
24:41in the prison service
24:42and the Youth Justice Board,
24:43responsible for allocating juveniles to prisons.
24:46But Assistant Governor Ian Thomas
24:48says nothing was done
24:50to stop the overcrowding.
24:52Should you have turned these kids away?
24:54Should you perhaps have refused
24:55to take so many kids?
24:56I'll give you a specific example
24:58of when the Governor actually said,
24:59we are not taking any more
25:01and was told, you will.
25:04Told by?
25:05I think it was the Deputy Director General.
25:08Of the prison service.
25:11Ian Thomas was already disillusioned.
25:14What happened next
25:15led to him changing his career.
25:18I walked in through the prison gate
25:20at about 7 o'clock
25:22on the 4th of August,
25:23was told on arrival
25:24that a young man,
25:2817-year-old on Kestrel,
25:30was on a life support machine,
25:32had attempted to hang himself,
25:36had done a very good attempt at it.
25:39He was on a life support machine.
25:41And I think from that moment on,
25:44I was thinking,
25:45I don't actually think
25:47I can continue to be part of this.
25:49The 17-year-old young criminal
25:50was John Paul Stewart.
25:52He was close to death,
25:53but he recovered
25:54and was sent back to Feltham,
25:55where we found him in his cell,
25:57about to finish his sentence.
25:59I was dead.
26:01I was dead.
26:02What do you mean?
26:03The only thing
26:04that was keeping me going
26:05was the life support machine.
26:07About 24 hours later,
26:09I woke up in intensive care.
26:12A tube was sticking out of me.
26:13What did you feel like
26:15when you came round here?
26:17Humiliating.
26:20The prison had already lost
26:21two governors in two years.
26:23Now, in August,
26:24Assistant Governor Ian Thomas left,
26:26protesting at what he called
26:27Dickensian conditions.
26:30But it is a jail.
26:32I mean,
26:34could they expect anything better?
26:36If society wants to
26:37look after
26:4016, 17...
26:41I mean,
26:42if he wants to look after
26:42human beings in that way,
26:44I think there's a problem
26:45with society.
26:47Four weeks after
26:48Ian Thomas resigned,
26:50another 17-year-old boy
26:51came into Feltham's
26:52volatile and dangerous world.
26:58Kevin Henson
26:59was no hardened criminal,
27:00but a young boy
27:01who could have been
27:02like any other.
27:06He lived in Ryslip,
27:07a quiet suburb
27:08in West London,
27:09only miles from Feltham.
27:11Everyone used to say,
27:12oh, Kevin,
27:12he's so naughty,
27:13but my mum
27:14absolutely adored Kevin
27:15and Kevin absolutely
27:17adored my mum.
27:17He was very close.
27:19Perhaps even more
27:20than most kids,
27:21Kevin was desperately
27:22close to his mother.
27:23But she was diagnosed
27:24with cancer
27:25and when they took
27:26a last holiday together
27:27in Florida,
27:28they knew the end
27:29was near.
27:33His mother died
27:34on his 14th birthday
27:35and Kevin
27:36never really recovered.
27:41His life began to change.
27:43He started to drink heavily.
27:48When his mum died,
27:49they just went
27:49off the rails a bit
27:51and got involved with
27:54lads who were
27:54basically a lot older than him
27:56because he was 14
27:56and it was on his birthday
27:58that she died.
27:58He'd wake up in the morning
27:59and have a can of lager.
28:01I think it was just
28:02to block everything out.
28:04He thought his life
28:05was so rubbish
28:06that if he had a can of lager
28:08and had a drink,
28:09everything would be all right
28:10and it wasn't.
28:13He didn't drink to be drunk.
28:14He drank to oblivion recently
28:16and then it was...
28:18You just couldn't talk
28:19to him anyway then.
28:21An alcoholic in his teens,
28:23Kevin drifted into shoplifting
28:24as he got older.
28:26One evening he got involved
28:28in a drunken brawl
28:29in Ryslip High Street.
28:30He pulled a knife
28:31and slashed someone.
28:32He claimed it was self-defence.
28:35He was charged
28:36with malicious wounding
28:37but would never stand trial.
28:41On the 28th of August,
28:43Kevin, the ordinary boy
28:44whose life had gone horribly wrong,
28:46arrived in Felton
28:47to join the hundreds
28:48of other young men on remand.
28:50He wrote to his father
28:52about Felton and alcohol.
28:55Kevin spoke to me
28:56and wrote in his letters
28:58about Felton
28:59saying that it was
29:00the worst place in the world
29:01and he felt he should be
29:03getting some help
29:04rather than punishment.
29:09Kevin doesn't appear
29:10to have been getting
29:11the help he needed
29:11with his alcohol addiction
29:14and his depression
29:15was made worse
29:16by the prison's
29:17often complicated rules.
29:19His family couldn't work out
29:21how to get him
29:21a change of clothes,
29:22cash or tobacco.
29:27His sister did manage
29:28to visit him
29:29on the juvenile's wing
29:30but she found it
29:31a distressing experience.
29:33It was horrible.
29:34There's other boys
29:35sitting around
29:36with their families
29:37and walking out
29:38as I'm sitting there
29:39with Kevin crying.
29:40There's like 16-year-old boys
29:42sitting there crying
29:43because their families
29:45are leaving them
29:46but they just seem
29:47so young
29:49and just like boys
29:50with their mum and dad
29:51and it just doesn't seem right.
29:54It's like,
29:56you're just treated
29:57like men, I think.
29:59I cried when I come out of there
30:00and it wasn't nice at all.
30:04It was to be the last time
30:06Kevin talked to his family.
30:08Next day he went to court
30:09for a hearing
30:10desperate for bail
30:11so he could visit
30:12his mum's grave.
30:14He was already asked
30:15to get his mum's birthday
30:16coming up
30:16another anniversary
30:18to go up to the grave
30:21to lay some flowers
30:22because he just went up there regularly.
30:24His father saw him
30:25in tears in court
30:26but couldn't speak to him.
30:29And he just shook his head a bit
30:30and he got refused bail
30:34and went down
30:35to the cells basically.
30:38He didn't get a chance
30:39to say what he wanted to say
30:41which was
30:42I realised that I need help
30:44and I really don't think
30:46Felton was the right place for me
30:47and I'll agree
30:49to any help
30:49that's offered to me.
30:51He wasn't given a chance
30:52to say anything like that.
30:54Apparently he was
30:57told or taunted
30:59by someone
31:00on the way back
31:01to the prison
31:02that he was going
31:03to end up doing
31:04two to three years
31:05in prison.
31:07Inevitably kids
31:08are often distressed
31:09coming back from court
31:10but Kevin couldn't
31:11talk to his family.
31:13What about talking
31:14to you as dad
31:15on the phone?
31:16Kevin got a phone card.
31:17We were told
31:18that the following day
31:20that they do have
31:22spare phone cards
31:23for emergencies
31:23but they don't tell inmates
31:25because they might
31:25abuse the system.
31:28Kevin came back
31:29to his cell
31:29where he was
31:30being held alone.
31:32It was a newly
31:33refurbished cell
31:34but there had been
31:35concerns about
31:36some of the work
31:37on the juvenile wing.
31:39It had been pointed out
31:41that electric cables
31:42put in
31:42ready for TV
31:43to be installed
31:44weren't boxed in
31:45and could have made
31:47a hanging
31:47or ligature point.
31:53It had been remarked
31:54that this ligature point
31:57in all the cells
31:59was ridiculous
32:00and that the cell
32:01shouldn't have been
32:03certified as habitable
32:05at that stage
32:06but what became
32:08of that
32:09I don't know.
32:11Kevin was held
32:13on Curlew Wing
32:13during the day
32:15as when we filmed
32:15it's manned
32:16by trained officers
32:18but on the night
32:18of September 5th
32:19it was manned
32:20as usual
32:21by one support officer
32:23who would have received
32:24just a few days
32:24of on-the-job training.
32:27There were young men
32:28thought to be at risk
32:28of suicide on the wing
32:29but nobody had spotted
32:31how distressed Kevin was
32:32so he wasn't one of them
32:33and wasn't specially monitored.
32:37I understand
32:38that it was
32:38a vulnerable
32:39landing
32:41unfortunately
32:41that lad
32:42was not on
32:42the suicide watch
32:44so I would say
32:46that it was
32:46an extremely difficult
32:48position to be in
32:49if you're having
32:49to check on
32:50all those
32:51particular prisoners
32:52and we're talking
32:52about one
32:54operational support
32:55raid
32:55doing that
32:57it's a near impossible
32:58task in my opinion.
32:59What training
33:00would that officer
33:01have had?
33:02At that time
33:04none
33:04none
33:05almost none
33:07In the morning
33:08Kevin's dad
33:09had a visit
33:10and they came
33:11and knocked
33:12to my door
33:13on the Wednesday morning
33:14just to tell me
33:15that Kevin
33:16had hung himself
33:22and they had found
33:23him at
33:24about quarter past
33:25seven
33:26half seven
33:26on that morning
33:36No sound
33:37from Kevin's cell
33:38had disturbed
33:38the support officer
33:39as she made her rounds
33:42Kevin had last
33:43been seen alive
33:44soon after eight
33:47sometime during
33:48the night
33:48he had hanged
33:49himself
33:50from the electric
33:50piping
33:54he was found
33:55by a prison
33:55officer
33:56next morning
34:01Rigor mortis
34:02had set in
34:03and Kevin
34:04could have been
34:04hanging there
34:05for most
34:05of the night
34:12Kevin had left
34:13notes stuck
34:14with toothpaste
34:14to the cell walls
34:16or referred to
34:17his mother
34:17he just wanted
34:18they said
34:19to be with his mum
34:21and he left
34:22a last letter
34:22for his family
34:23it was only
34:24handed over to them
34:25some six months
34:26later
34:28Dear family
34:29I'm sorry
34:30for doing this
34:31to you
34:31but I can't
34:32ride this amount
34:33of time in here
34:34without seeing
34:34mum's grave
34:36being with mum
34:37and grandad
34:37is better than
34:38living the life
34:39I'm living
34:40the courts
34:40don't give a fuck
34:41about anyone
34:42I asked them
34:43to help me
34:43with my alcohol
34:44problem
34:44but they wouldn't
34:45they'd just
34:46throw me in here
34:48I know this
34:48is going to be
34:49hard for all
34:50of you
34:54On a number
34:55of occasions
34:55I warned
34:57the management
34:58at Felton
34:58about the risks
34:59of alcohol
35:00dependency
35:01in this age
35:01group
35:02and without
35:04creating a
35:05heightened awareness
35:06amongst the staff
35:07it was very often
35:07something that
35:08got disregarded
35:09and forgotten
35:09about
35:11You wrote
35:12to the management
35:12to warn them
35:13Yes
35:13What happened?
35:14Nothing
35:16Nothing?
35:17Nothing
35:17No one cared
35:18for him
35:19in there
35:19at all
35:20just locked
35:20him up
35:21and just
35:21forgot about
35:22him
35:22That was his
35:23words
35:23Just throw him
35:25in here
35:25and forget
35:25about him
35:28Yards from
35:29his mother
35:29Kevin's body
35:30now lies
35:31in the same
35:31graveyard
35:32the eighth
35:33young man
35:33to die
35:34hanging himself
35:34at Felton
35:35in ten years
35:39There's still
35:39to be a
35:40coroner's inquest
35:40into his death
35:44In some cells
35:45the electricity
35:45pipes from which
35:46Kevin had
35:47hanged himself
35:47still haven't
35:48been boxed in
35:49as we pointed out
35:51to the new
35:51governor
35:51who is appointed
35:52after Kevin's
35:53death
35:55It just seems
35:56extraordinary
35:57that this was
35:57allowed to happen
35:58in the first place
35:59and it's still there
36:00even after one
36:01young man
36:01has killed himself
36:02It's unfortunate
36:03that it was allowed
36:04to happen
36:04and I have to say
36:05I see no point
36:06in trying to blame
36:07people
36:07A genuine
36:08oversight was made
36:09and now we're
36:10rectifying it
36:11But you haven't
36:11rectified it yet
36:12We are rectifying it
36:13on a rolling programme
36:14The pipes shouldn't
36:15have been there
36:15for them to
36:17ever have hung themselves
36:18off
36:19Whether they were
36:20put in there
36:20and should have
36:21been taken out
36:21because they were
36:22obvious
36:22or whether they
36:22should never have
36:23been designed
36:23and put in there
36:24in the first place
36:29It seems to be
36:30too easy for them
36:30to harm themselves
36:32and
36:34lessons haven't
36:35been learned
36:40And today
36:41there are still
36:41many young men
36:42in Feltham
36:43who want to
36:43harm themselves
36:44The most troubling
36:45cases come here
36:46to the healthcare
36:47centre
36:48In reality
36:49mainly a mental
36:49health ward
36:50with psychiatric
36:51care and special
36:52nurses
36:52Some are so
36:53disturbed
36:54they should be
36:54in NHS
36:55psychiatric beds
36:56and some say
36:57Feltham's just
36:58made them worse
37:00I'm missing my mum
37:01a lot
37:01I was with my mum
37:02every day
37:03since I was born
37:04I hardly ever
37:05without her
37:06Being put in prison
37:07just cut me off
37:07from all that
37:09I tried to hang
37:11myself in it
37:11I was so stressed
37:12out
37:13The voice in my head
37:14was telling me
37:14to do mad things
37:15like hang yourself
37:16just die
37:17you're better off
37:18I genuinely
37:18want to die
37:19I've had enough
37:19I've just prisoned
37:20When I was on the
37:22street year
37:22I was like
37:23ill ill
37:23When I've come to
37:24prison
37:25it's made my
37:25illness ten times
37:26worse
37:28It's also
37:28a difficult place
37:29for staff
37:30Last month
37:31when we were
37:31in the prison
37:32there were
37:32repeated outbreaks
37:33of violence
37:33in the healthcare
37:34centre
37:35which we weren't
37:36allowed to film
37:43Today
37:43Feltham is struggling
37:44to cope
37:45not only with
37:46the aftermath
37:46of suicide
37:47but of murder
37:49Seven months
37:49after the killing
37:50of Zahid Mubarak
37:51by Robert Stewart
37:52the prison service
37:53concluded its
37:54internal report
37:55We have obtained
37:56a copy
37:56It is a damning
37:58indictment
37:58of institutional
37:59failure
38:00Yet it makes
38:01no mention
38:01of any individual
38:02officers
38:03responsible for
38:04letting Zahid
38:04share a cell
38:05with the dangerous
38:06Robert Stewart
38:07We've also been
38:08told at least
38:09one of the two
38:10personal officers
38:10Claire Bigger
38:11was not interviewed
38:12The prison service
38:14told us
38:14she did not
38:15wish to talk
38:15to us
38:18My understanding
38:19is that personal
38:20officer has
38:20gone to another
38:22establishment
38:23Demoted
38:24promoted
38:25No
38:26I think
38:27she's been
38:28promoted
38:28The personal
38:29officer scheme
38:30was not
38:30working
38:31in other than
38:32a nominal sense
38:33Now that's not
38:33any individual's
38:34fault
38:34But she wasn't
38:36being expected
38:37to take a
38:39particular role
38:39with these two
38:40young men
38:40and we should
38:41have a personal
38:42officer scheme
38:42there and we
38:43didn't
38:43but I don't
38:45think you can
38:45criticise her
38:46for the failure
38:47to see that
38:49this death
38:49was going to
38:49happen
38:51When we
38:52visited
38:52Swallow
38:52things seemed
38:53back to normal
38:55but prisoners
38:55told us
38:56cells were
38:57much the same
38:57as when
38:58Zahid Mubarak
38:59died
39:01Tables
39:02just like
39:02the one
39:03from which
39:03Stuart had
39:04torn his
39:04murder weapon
39:05were still
39:05there
39:07Nothing at
39:08all that
39:08has changed
39:09about it
39:09Nothing at
39:10all
39:10The tables
39:10are still
39:11here
39:11Like he got
39:12battered to
39:12death
39:13in his sleep
39:14It's still
39:15an option
39:15for someone
39:15who's in
39:16there
39:16again
39:16If they
39:16didn't
39:16like
39:16their
39:17cell
39:17they
39:17could
39:17do
39:17the
39:17same
39:17thing
39:18again
39:18Have they
39:19been
39:19screwed
39:19down?
39:20No
39:20As you can
39:22see
39:22they're not
39:23screwed
39:23down
39:24It's visual
39:25it's not
39:25screwed
39:25down
39:26If we bolt
39:28the tables
39:28down
39:28somebody else
39:29will find
39:29something
39:30else
39:30to use
39:31as a
39:31weapon
39:31I think
39:32we've
39:32actually
39:32got to
39:33accept
39:33that
39:33there
39:33will
39:33be
39:34some
39:34risks
39:35those risks
39:35have to
39:36be
39:36managed
39:36but I
39:37think
39:37the
39:37logical
39:38conclusion
39:38of that
39:38argument
39:39is
39:39that
39:39we just
39:39take
39:40everything
39:40out
39:40to
39:40sell
39:42Whatever
39:42these
39:43unresolved
39:43problems
39:44Feltham
39:44says it
39:44now has
39:45better
39:45checks
39:46on
39:46prisoners
39:46records
39:47But for
39:48records
39:48to be
39:48read
39:49there
39:49must
39:49be
39:49a
39:50record
39:50to
39:50hand
39:50when
39:51prisoners
39:51arrive
39:51from
39:52court
39:52and
39:53we
39:53discovered
39:53sometimes
39:54even
39:54this
39:54basic
39:55information
39:55is
39:56still
39:56not
39:56available
39:57You're
39:58saying
39:58that
39:58inmates
39:59are
40:00still
40:00coming
40:00in
40:00here
40:00and
40:00don't
40:00know
40:01what
40:01their
40:01crimes
40:01are
40:01Yes
40:02And
40:03it
40:03could
40:03be
40:04anything
40:05It
40:07I
40:07witnessed
40:07a
40:08warrant
40:08come
40:08in
40:09a
40:09few
40:10weeks
40:10ago
40:10where
40:10all
40:11that
40:11was
40:11written
40:11on
40:11the
40:12warrant
40:12was
40:12he
40:12was
40:12convicted
40:13of
40:13crime
40:15Whose fault
40:16is this?
40:18Whose
40:19responsibility is it?
40:20I think there are a number of agencies involved in that
40:22and we're on the end of the chain
40:24doesn't that mean that the case of Robert Stewart and Zahid Mubarak
40:28could happen again?
40:30There is always a risk
40:33that something like that will happen again
40:36the tragedy which took place
40:40there is always a possibility that might happen again
40:42I cannot say it will never happen again
40:46Despite the work on the juvenile wing
40:48the regime for the over-18s is as bad as ever
40:50we found these two young men sharing a cell built for one
40:53with the toilet next to a bed
40:55conditions the prison's board of visitors call inhumane
40:58It's two cramp
41:00It's two cramp
41:01Manning got no personal space
41:03Many people want a share of cell
41:06But this was designed for one
41:07Yes it was
41:08and it's not
41:09it's not ideal
41:10and I accept that
41:12Although an extra half million pounds a year has been found for Feltham
41:15there can be no assurance the courts won't flood it with the young prisoners again
41:20I can't give any guarantees about the population in the future
41:25but as a matter of fact I'm reasonably convinced that the investment I have from the government
41:29will allow me to keep pace with any rise in the population for the next few years
41:33and I am entirely confident
41:36particularly now the refurbishment has been completed at Feltham
41:39that it will not see a return to the overcrowding that we had last year
41:44Last month, John Paul Stewart, now recovered from his brush with death
41:48prepared to leave Feltham for the world outside
41:50He was uncertain whether he'd be back
41:55Do you think you will come back?
41:57Do you think you'll stay out?
41:59I'm going to try my heart just to stay out
42:01but what happens happens, innit?
42:06Nationally, more than seven out of ten young offenders are reconvicted
42:09In Feltham, it's almost certainly more
42:12John Paul's already trying to run off with his prison jacket
42:15What's that?
42:17Gone away prison, innit?
42:19Some say tough prisons for tough kids do work
42:22or at least keep them off the streets
42:24Confiscated that
42:25But the record at Britain's biggest young offenders institution
42:28suggests too many inmates are harming themselves, each other and the rest of us
42:33The society wishes to simply put them behind a fence
42:37lock them up, do nothing with them
42:40and then throw them out the gate six months later
42:43saying, you know, back into society you go
42:47All that will achieve is more victims, more crime
42:52We're trying to reduce re-offending
42:54and yet we've got a re-offending rate of 90%
42:57It doesn't work
42:59Too many young criminals leave Feltham knowing it isn't working
43:03On my area, most people have been to prison
43:06the people who commit the crime
43:07they've been to Feltham
43:09and they've learnt from Feltham
43:10how to do the crime, they've now committed
43:12Like they say, it's there to teach you a lesson
43:14but it doesn't really teach you a lesson
43:16it just sends you mad up in your heads really
43:20Yeah, it's like mad
43:23There's no such thing as rehabilitation at all
43:24the government are confused
43:25they don't know what to do with these juveniles
43:27and these young offenders
43:28they just end up just throwing them beyond bars
43:30and trying to forget about them
43:30that's their way of forgetting about them
43:32lock them up
43:32but it ain't solving the problem at all
43:35The kids themselves and insiders who've worked there
43:38say that Feltham simply isn't working
43:41the kids go back on the streets
43:43maybe even more damaged than they were before
43:46and do it all again
43:50Certainly that can happen
43:51We're dealing with very, very difficult young men
43:54generally who courts are sent into custody as a last resort
43:58that abused alcohol or abusing drugs
44:01and yes, many of them will return to the streets
44:03and we know we'll go back to re-offending
44:05and Feltham has been historically difficult
44:07but there are signs of a real change
44:17Freedom, but not for long
44:20Today, John Paul Stewart is back in prison
44:25Nothing in Feltham has changed his ways
44:27just like the vast majority
44:29who leave to carry on their life
44:30as burglars, muggers and thieves
44:33in the streets where they
44:35and the rest of us live
44:36bslash
44:39bslash
44:39bslash
44:39bslash
44:42it
44:43a
44:43bslash
44:44bslash