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Pentonville Prison stabbing: Inmate killed and two injured | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
A prisoner has died and two others have been critically injured in a stabbing at HMP Pentonville in London. | |
The inmate, in his 20s, died at the prison shortly after the attack, while the injured pair, aged 21 and 30, were taken to hospital with knife wounds. | |
A 34-year-old man was arrested following the stabbing at 15:30 BST. | |
The Prison Governors Association renewed calls for a public inquiry amid what it said was an "unprecedented" rise in prison violence and suicides. | |
The Met said formal identification of the dead man had not taken place, adding that a post-mortem examination would be arranged in due course. | |
'Very dark place' | |
At its annual conference in Derby last week, the Prison Governors Association said safety standards in prisons had declined since the introduction of "benchmarking" - a programme to drive down costs by reducing staffing and simplifying the prison regime. | |
Responding to the Pentonville stabbing, a spokesman for the association said: "Our members, uniformed staff and prisoners are working and living in squalid and brutal conditions which should not be tolerated in a country that is one of the richest in the Western world. | |
"If a society is judged by how it treats those it locks up, then we are in a very dark place." | |
Pentonville Prison | |
The Ministry of Justice last week said it was "fully committed to addressing the significant increase in violence, self-harm and self-inflicted deaths in our prisons" and Justice Secretary Elizabeth Truss promised an extra £14m to recruit more prison officers. | |
A Prison Service spokesman said: "Police are investigating an incident at HMP Pentonville. | A Prison Service spokesman said: "Police are investigating an incident at HMP Pentonville. |
"It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage." | "It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage." |
No prison officers are understood to have been injured in the incident, the Prison Officers Association said. |