A former prison governor has lifted the lid on life inside prison separation centres, which house convicts like Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi. On Saturday, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said Abedi, brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi, had attacked three prison guards, with the incident taking place in a separation centre at HMP Frankland, also known as ‘Monster Mansion’.
Abedi threw hot cooking oil over the officers before producing “homemade weapons” and stabbing them, the POA said. A statement released by the trade union covering prison staff reported that one female and two male officers were being treated in hospital after the ambush. The female officer was discharged on Saturday while her two male colleagues remain in hospital with serious injuries, though are in a stable condition.
Abedi was jailed for life in August 2020 and is currently serving at the category A HMP Frankland. Category A is the highest level of security, housing some of the country’s most serious criminals.
Introduced eight years ago in 2017, separation centres are small units that are typically used to accommodate prisoners regarded as the most dangerous. They are sometimes referred to as being a ‘prison within a prison’ due to their extra layer of security and limitations.
Retired prison governor and author of The Governor, Vanessa Frake-Harris told The Mirror: “They’re like a jail within a jail. They are prevalent in high-security estates, with Frankland being the first one that was introduced. They hold probably around 10 prisoners”.
“The purpose of a separation centre is to remove prisoners that are considered in one of the following categories: in the interest of national security; to prevent the commission, preparation, instigation of an act of terrorism; to prevent the dissemination of views or beliefs that might encourage or induce others to commit said acts, or indeed to prevent any political, religious, racial or other views or beliefs being used to undermine good order and discipline of the prison. That comes under prison rule 46A.”
A 2022 inspection found nine men in total were housed in separation centres, then operating in Frankland and HMP Woodhill, Buckinghamshire. The report said the Frankland unit is on a narrow corridor with a small “room for association” and an area for prisoners to cook and prepare food. There are no facilities on the wing, and staff could arrange for prisoners to visit the main prison gym or to be taken off the unit for education.
According to Vanessa, the separation centres are run by “experienced staff’’ who “have the knowledge and the ability to deal with such dangerous prisoners”. However she emphasised the threat level that prisoners in these units can pose.
“Be under no illusion, these are some of the most violent terrorists, extremists with extremist views that we hold in our prisons in the country. Serving 55 years, you have nothing to lose, so the ability to manage them needs to be tight,” she explained.
“You have to be able to control and contain these people because they will think not once or twice about violence against prison staff, which makes this all the more shocking that this has had to happen to highlight the dangerousness of these people.”
Calls are now being made to introduce stab-proof vests ‘as a minimum’ for prison officers. Speaking to the Mirror, Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association said it was “a real issue” that officers didn’t have these vests. “These people are ingenious and they will use anything they get their hands on,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vanessa highlighted that prisoners can make makeshift, dangerous weapons out of the simplest of things. “I’ve seen horrendous incidents where prison staff have been hit with batteries in a sock or stabbed with a pen,” she said. “The ability to make weapons is incredible. And prisoners have time to do these things.”
Vanessa has called for immediate change to happen. Like the POA, she believes that officers should be given more protection. “I think we need to put our foot down. I think we need to stop pussyfooting about and treat these people as the dangerous individuals that they are,” she said.
“I also think that more protection should be made for the staff. I know the Prison Officers Association is calling for stab vests to be introduced. You go to Tesco and you see the security guards with stab vets. This is the society that we live in these days. A prison will only reflect society and I think we have to be mindful of that.”
Counter-terrorism police are currently leading the investigation into the incident. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with the two prison officers still in hospital as they recover. There will be a full review into how this attack was able to happen, alongside the separate police inquiry. The Government will do whatever it takes to keep our hardworking staff safe.”
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
