Wandsworth Prison was forced to transfer an unknown number of inmates at short notice to prisons as far away as Norwich to make room for hundreds of protesters arrested during the recent Palestine Action demonstration.
The emergency prisoner movements, carried out under the government’s “capacity gold command” system, created significant disruption for inmates and their families at the south London jail, which already houses the highest proportion (44.8%) of foreign nationals of any mainstream prison in England and Wales.
The facility serves as a key processing centre for defendants awaiting trial at Westminster courts and houses many foreign nationals – which includes those from Ireland – awaiting deportation.
Hidden human cost of overcrowding
Family members have reported to the Wandsworth Prison Improvement Committee (WPIC) that prisoners were given no advance warning of their transfers, with some simply called to reception before finding themselves on buses to facilities hundreds of miles away. Later this year, Wandsworth will lose some of its role in servicing local courts and will only service Westminster, which should help reduce the churn of prisoners, but may increase the numbers of foreign nationals creating its own resource constraints.
Prisoners are not told their destination during transport because it is deemed a security risk and reportedly try to catch glimpses of road signs to determine where they are being taken. Their families often discover the moves only when arriving for scheduled visits to find their loved ones have vanished.
During these rapidly enforced moves, personal possessions often go missing – including family photos – as cells are quickly cleared out for the next prisoner. The system for connecting prisoners to their possessions is poor and prisoners are not allowed to take any possessions with them.
Palestine Action protest triggers capacity crisis
A total of 532 people were arrested at a demonstration in Parliament Square earlier this month, with 519 arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act for displaying supportive placards or signs. The scale of arrests – the largest relating to Palestine Action since it was proscribed as a terrorist organisation last month – overwhelmed the prison system already running at 97.5% capacity.
Half of those arrested were aged 60 or above, according to police figures, with nearly 100 of those detained in their 70s and 15 in their 80s. Among those arrested were a retired British colonel, a Catholic priest, and numerous pensioners who felt they had “a greater share of responsibility” to defend free speech rights. Most were later bailed to appear in court in October, but the temporary housing needs forced the activation of emergency prisoner transfer protocols.
The mass arrests came after Home Secretary Yvette Cooper put Palestine Action on the banned list after activists caused an estimated £7m of damage to jets at RAF Brize Norton military base by splattering them with red paint.
Systemic problems exposed
Built 170 years ago, Wandsworth is a large Victorian prison serving the courts of south-west London. The prison also continues to serve Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where all European arrest warrant extradition hearings in England and Wales are heard.
As well as a high number of foreign national prisoners, the population of Wandsworth is characterised by the fact that nearly three-quarters of the people there are unsentenced and nearly half serving time on remand. This makes the facility particularly vulnerable to sudden influxes from mass arrests.
Prison governors have warned that the current system of emergency transfers creates instability that undermines rehabilitation efforts. “Moving prisoners long distances to prisons that have room is far from ideal in that resettling prisoners from prisons a long way from where they are going to live on release is difficult logistically and less likely to be successful,” Tom Wheatley, president of the Prison Governors’ Association, said earlier this month.
Return journey creates further chaos
Once arrestees were processed through the courts and bailed, the transferred prisoners began returning to Wandsworth, creating what sources describe as additional “chaos and instability” for both inmates and the prison system.
The cycle of emergency moves followed by returns exemplifies the broader crisis facing the UK’s prison system, where short-term capacity management takes priority over prisoner welfare and rehabilitation programmes.
Due to staff absences (e.g. high sick leave), the regime is currently restricted with many prisoners out of cell for only 2-3 hours a day, according to recent reports from prison monitors.
Ministry of Justice response
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson confirmed that “capacity gold command” arrangements have been in operation for months to manage prison overcrowding. The system allows officials to monitor every unused cell and direct prisoner movements to maximise available space.
The government has been forced to implement early release schemes and is considering reactivating “Operation Early Dawn,” which would hold defendants in police cells until prison beds become available.
Putney.news has submitted a Freedom of Information request seeking specific figures on the number of prisoners transferred from Wandsworth in relation to the Palestine Action arrests, though these have not yet been released.
Further disruption expected
The crisis at Wandsworth and other prisons may be repeated in the coming weeks, as the organiser of the protests – Defend Our Juries – has announced that “many hundreds of people” have already committed to another protest planned for early September, which organisers say will be “on an even larger scale” than last weekend’s demonstration.
With the prison system still operating at near-maximum capacity and no resolution to the underlying overcrowding crisis, another mass arrest situation could force additional emergency transfers and further strain the already fragile system.
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