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| Pentonville prison knife attack: second inmate arrested | Pentonville prison knife attack: second inmate arrested |
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| A second inmate at Pentonville prison has been arrested after a knife attack in the jail that left one prisoner dead and two others in a critical condition. | A second inmate at Pentonville prison has been arrested after a knife attack in the jail that left one prisoner dead and two others in a critical condition. |
| The 26-year-old suspect was taken to a north London police station, where a 34-year-old was already being held for questioning by detectives from the Metropolitan police’s homicide and major crime command, police said. | The 26-year-old suspect was taken to a north London police station, where a 34-year-old was already being held for questioning by detectives from the Metropolitan police’s homicide and major crime command, police said. |
| Officers and paramedics were called to the prison at 3.30pm on Tuesday, where three men had suffered stab wounds. At 4.25pm, one inmate, in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene. | Officers and paramedics were called to the prison at 3.30pm on Tuesday, where three men had suffered stab wounds. At 4.25pm, one inmate, in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene. |
| The two other victims, aged 21 and 30, remained in critical condition in an east London hospital. | |
| On Wednesday morning, police said they were in the process of informing the next of kin of the dead man, who had not yet been formally identified. “Further inquiries into the incident continue,” the Met said in a statement. | On Wednesday morning, police said they were in the process of informing the next of kin of the dead man, who had not yet been formally identified. “Further inquiries into the incident continue,” the Met said in a statement. |
| The Prison Governors Association (PGA) on Wednesday renewed calls for a public inquiry into the state of jails in England and Wales. The union said government cuts to staff and resources meant the incident at Pentonville was “no massive surprise”. | |
| Recent statistics published by the Ministry of Justice showed there were 100 apparently self-inflicted deaths in the year to March, the highest for more than a decade. There were more than 20,000 assaults – 2,813 deemed “serious” – in the 12 months to December, a rise of 27% year-on-year, and nearly 5,000 attacks on staff, a jump of more than a third compared with 2014. | |
| John Attard, national policy officer at the PGA, said: “It is no secret that we have had concerns about cuts and resources over the last four years. The Ministry of Justice statistics paint a very grim picture indeed.” | |
| Referring to Tuesday afternoon’s incident as a “tragedy”, he said: “The prison service paid staff to leave. The years of experience, the mentoring, the sharing of their experiences – a lot of that has been lost, and it is showing. It’s why we need an inquiry into this.” | |
| In July last year, Michael Gove, then justice secretary, described Pentonville as “the most dramatic example of failure within the prison estate”. | |
| Opened in 1842, the category B prison holds 1,200 inmates, despite a nominal capacity of 900. A report by the chief inspector of prisons last year said conditions for inmates were among the poorest in England and Wales. Drugs were easily available, cells were filthy and some inmates were locked up for up to 23 hours a day. | |
| “On one occasion we found prisoners located in a cell with blood on the walls and door, and on another occasion with blood on the bunk bed; on neither occasion was the blood cleaned up when we raised our concerns with staff,” the report said. | |
| The PGA recently gave a warning that cost cuts were affecting safety standards in jails. | |
| Responding to the stabbing, a spokesperson told BBC News: “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.” | Responding to the stabbing, a spokesperson told BBC News: “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.” |