HMP Frankland prison documentary.

If You're a murderer a terrorist or a rapist this is the perfect place for you this was a very severe secure environment hmp Franklin everything's just Keys there's nowhere to go apart from the jungle that you are in you'll be banged up with some of the most sadistic criminals in Britain people who are just pure evil or what the corridors with a triple killer he is a manipulative Sly unfeeling monster you might even come face to face with a man who has murdered children because of huntley's Fame and not righty other prisoners were jealous of that as an inmate in here you'll need to watch your back you were literally an extreme dying group being seriously assaulted as this is a prison that challenges everyone basically designed to break you in every way possible and it can kick off at any moment the alarms were going off the screws were running on the wing it was just going off for about half an hour this is the Inside Story there is a kind of Black Market in sort of relationships if you like from those who are incarcerated here there's a lot of the next Army and I they're used to tear up they might tear up those who work here he could have killed me that day and he just would not have cared and those who know the truth if you're gonna harm somebody that a lot of people are close to people gonna get the um welcome to the place some people call hell this is hmp Franklin in the beautiful countryside of County Durham lies a high security prison hmp Franklin so this is Franklin prison where I was when I was there 21 year old this is where you come down in the wagon and you're going through the big kids in the reception to all of it still got it as you go in it's got engraved Welcome to Hell built in 1983 Franklin's been expanded three times and now it's sprawling Wings house 840 prisoners for your view on a typical cell is just a big metal fence there's no Greenery or anything inside everything's just Greer dark and miserable nobody has ever escaped from Franklin it's category a the highest security rating [Music] if you went over that wall there would be a big gap in between and then you've got the big metal fences and then you've got the barbed wire if you get over the fence then you've got the wharf which is never going to happen it's all fences and Gates it takes a while to get from the main gate to the to the top Wings where where I worked Franklin's newer wings are built in a distinctive l-shape allowing guards to keep a better eye on the prisoners because there's two Spurs on the wing and like they've got their office in the middle there's a big metal gear to where you can lock it so you can't get onto the other spur on each spur of the wing a rose of 40 to 60 single occupancy cells prisoners are locked inside these at night and at certain times each day this is not a joke this is a very severe secure environment this closed in there's nowhere to go apart from the jungle that you are in surrounded by mostly a bunch of killers [Music] behind the high walls here are some of Britain's most notorious criminals some of the people out that are inside of here I mean like you've had the likes of Yorkshire Ripper was in here he's just died recently from here he had covered got Ian Huntley you've got the worst of the worst behind their walls they have some really sick horrible men in there Delroy Grant The Night Stalker rapist Levi Belfield killer of Millie down the only man in Britain to have two whole life terms Michael Ade Bellagio the killer of Lee Rigby is home to Wayne cousins the killer police killer of Sarah everard people who you just know it just pure evil if they've been no tourists in the what you deem as notorious in the last 20 years then I would have met them murder robbery violence drug dealing fraudsters burglars aggravated burglars robbers murderers ganglion figures you know you say the wrong thing to the wrong person on the wrong date you could end up with a pencil stuck in your eye or you know a six-inch nail stabbed into your throat I don't think anyone was prepared mentally for the difficulties they might confront dealing with so many highly dangerous men [Applause] [Music] all right if you've got a serious enough sentence to be sent to Franklin your first day will be full on beginning with a rude awakening right how many you're on the move on the move well you're going on a long trip now if you're high risk or exceptional you'll have police outriders or you'll have a helicopter which will follow you all the way to your next prison the sweat box is like that and a little cubicle you're only clue on where you're going he's trying to get clients of road signs and where you're heading off from the van to the reception area [Music] first thing on arrival is this thing like who the [ __ ] are these you know what I mean like they'll be strip searched to make sure that they've brought more Contraband from the previous chill totally High Securities seeing the screws starting all over with the dogs got the guard dogs not everyone's out on the wings like Logan again to see who's coming the fresh people coming in on the wing people will be curious about who you are they will be particularly curious about what you're in prison for you'd be given a bed pack for your bedding towel and all that you get your Vape for your own Vape and you're paint up behind the door you come through the door put your hope aside mate because anything you're open for is not going to bleeding happen but before you get settled there's something you should know about Franklin's screws they just kite up themselves and it's in their culture I still have to fight in them on it as much as we were so it's going off quite frequently foreign just arrived at hmp Franklin a category a prison in County Durham and already all the prisoners will be warning you about some of the screws here when I worked at Franklin there was quite a lot of expertly there there was x x pit workers this group of local hard guys are some of the most feared PRS in the prison system say so we want something tough and Northern so we'll put it in Durham uh when I was there tonight it's a lot of Iraq's Army and they're they're used to tear up they might tear up they still had to fight in them so I know that he was on it as much as we were so it was going off quite frequently I've experienced it and I've seen and then deal with people sometimes they just can't help themselves and it's in their culture Franklin employs over 700 people including prison officers and not all of them have the same attitude to the job the stuff in there who put on the uniform and and feel like they have to be this aggressive kind of say I'm in charge because I'm wearing this uniform and and that makes your life really hard if you're a firm but fair prison officer who who understand the environment work and it could make your life difficult prison regimes in the North and the attitude of prison officers in the north was far more reactionary and anti-prisoner than it was in the South it's got reputation for being run by what people call the Geordie Mafia being big on steroids big on violence they don't like Southerners if you're a prisoner of color arriving at Franklin prison in the 80s 90s and early 2000s former inmates claimed that there were rumors that would make you especially nervous so Franklin myself has the reputation of those staff up there being worrisome than the rest by way of not liking anything else like the color of white you were a London prisoner arriving in Franklin the hostility you face and staff was quite bad anyway but if you were blackened from London then you were literally in extreme danger of being seriously assaulted Franklin gets that reputation for being a racist jail just because we don't have a lot of diversity among stuff but that's just the region we work in I can't sit and say that there isn't a problem with racism in the prison service I suppose that ignorance causing all walks of life but what I can say is from 2006 to 2010 I never witnessed that at Franklin a recent report on Franklin didn't make any direct reference to racism the Chief Inspector of prison said the promotion of equality and diversity needed Improvement and required greater prioritization [Music] and it's not just the screws who are allegedly hostile you've got the local criminals to worry about too young guys wasn't used to interacting with a lot of black people you get into arguments with them and all that they're quick to bring color into it or something stupid because they never really know no better they'll kind of shave their bodybuilders that there is a type of Franklin prisoner I would not be telling the truth if I didn't say that Franklin is to some extent and always has been since it was envisaged a powder cake hahaha new prisoner Ricky prickly discovered being from the Northeast was an advantage these were the most powerful groups of Franklin obviously you've got the Magnums which is the Sun and large and you've got the geordies who's from Newcastle yeah when you had a quite a few Middlesbrough odds Durham boy Ricky grew up with Franklin on his doorstep we're down here coming down that road there driving through the kids I had a bit of a like an excitement about his leg just waiting to see what actually is behind their walls you know I was like I wasn't scared I was like looking forward to being in there to be honest in 2007 two local guys around the same age found themselves arriving at Franklin one was a prisoner the other was a screw Ricky and Craig both grew up in County Durham in the 90s hanging out in similar places and attending similar schools but they were going to end up on very different sides in Franklin I'd previously been in the military before I joined the prison service so for me it was a natural progression going from one uniform job into another uniform job people are quite surprised when I said I wanted to go there because of what they heard about the players Ricky had slashed a man with a machete he was sent to Franklin for gbh with intent the mindset that I was in I was in a sick we're enjoying us Craig had family inspiration for joining Franklin screws without being in a prison service for 30 years me mum was in the prison service my sister was in the prison service and Ricky had a family history that set him on the path to being banged up here my dad had spent a lot of years in jail um before I was born he'd spent about 14 years in prison on the uh they used to tell me prison stories and stuff when I was a kid and from a young age 78 year old like I always wanted to go to prison I never really had any role models right good Role Models growing up always looked up there gangsters and stuff like that and obviously getting in there and being surrounded by them I was like loving it really when his cell door slammed behind him the young Ricky was in a strange frame of mind for a man who had just lost his freedom stay on the first night they um where I was only part by myself I was looking out at the window and I'll be music on because obviously the lads could give us a high five now you know what I was listening to some sort of dance music and I was just like looking out on the yard looking up at the metal fence now and I was just like popping away at the music and just thinking I've made it there was some elements in the prison service that reflected the Army because there was a lot of ex-military cylinder pen service at that time so it was it was nice still having that sort of regimental aspect of it just took pride in your uniform make sure you're presentable everything run on a time in the prison service just like you did in the military so yeah it was it was it was a nice continuity [Music] but while Ricky was excited to arrive in Franklin this prison was about to wipe the smile off his face for the second year that I was in Franklin day um I went at the kitchen with me one of me Pals he said he was going to cook as a stick I was a bit of a welcome meal prisoners in Franklin could buy ingredients and cook their own meals if they want to avoid prison slop was seasoning up the stick there was a couple of odds in the kitchen um one of them was starting washing these dishes well I was looking over and I just seen this pan of hot oil bubbling away and I looked and I thought I wonder what's going on there because just seemed a bit out a place a big part of hot oil bubbling away um and some Lord came and picked it up tipped over the back of his head burned him bad it burned him bad you know it's not a nice sight you know it's the worstest thing you can do to someone it was only his second day in Franklin a new prisoner Ricky had already witnessed an inmate being attacked with boiling oil this inmate turned out to be one of the Jail's most notorious residents prisoners might got their hot oil tip on a museum during Barrett and he was the head of al-Qaeda and the oak here Darren Barrett is a high-profile terrorist thought to be senior in al-Qaeda he plotted to slaughter thousands of civilians in the UK and U.S and details of his narrowly thwarted plans horrified the public and traveled to the United States and started picking targets major targets for terrorist attacks um the World Bank the international monetary fund New York Stock Exchange Citigroup and he was planning to use dirty bombs to destroy each of these targets he also simultaneously was planning an attack on the London Underground which he was going to flood hoping to kill many thousands of people caught and found guilty in 2006. Barrett was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years barot is sent to Franklin after his conviction as put in the among the ordinary prison population it was an extremely dangerous man softly spoken surprisingly intelligent and utterly deadly if you're guilty of terrorist offenses the authorities need category a security to keep you under lock and key making this prison an ideal Choice one of the things that Franklin has got is a lot of terrorists at least 25 at any one time in March 2022 there were 159 terrorists in prison classed as islamist extremists and 57 categorized as extreme right wing many of the most infamous and deadly are housed at Franklin the prison is home to Michael Ade Bellagio the killer of Lee Rigby with a machete in the car Hashim abedi who helped plan the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017. Franklin also includes the murderer of Joe Cox the MP Thomas Mayer Craig remembers dealing with notorious terrorists as part of his job at Franklin when they started coming in in 2005 678 the the kind of well-known individual terrorists or terrorists Who You'd who you'd heard of for weeks and months on the news and then there was stood in front of you um so it was quite an interesting time and seeing how the prisoners were going to deal with that franklyn he said Michael Cosmos Society and Society in Britain changed as a result of the seven seven bombings in 2005. if anyone now doubted what we were seeing was a coordinated series of Terror attacks confirmation came just 10 minutes later a number 10 bus passing through Tavistock Square was torn apart by a bomb placed near the back on the upper deck it was full of people recently evacuated from Russell Square Tube Station we became more suspicious more frightened yes we'd had terrorists before but not like this not in quite the same way at Franklin in the mid to late 2000s attitudes towards prisoners in for terrorism were becoming increasingly hostile a lot of people obviously don't like what they're in forceful but then the deal become a Target [Music] the attack on Barrett rocked the jail new prisoner Ricky could sense that things were about to escalate and about two weeks after another terrorist that was left on the Wing by itself obviously he was probably feeling vulnerable thinking that he was going to get attacked so he's walked over to one of the jordillards I was just sitting there eating his tea and went up behind him and just went like un tip the pond over his head but this went over his full head all down his fears and his head just blew up like a watermelon and this fresh attack wasn't to be the last of the so-called juggins at Franklin yeah just saying if you popping along this business to throw hot oil over themselves um it kind of became the go-to assault originally you know in the old days it was made for sex offenders for somebody to do what to do it has to be serious or it has to be a hit prison officer Craig got used to dealing with scolded prisoners who had scheme flaking off from attacks with boiling oil or water there was one prisoner that I saw us would actually worse than when I when I previously thought we'd just put them in a cold shower in his back his chest his face his head was all was all really badly burned I think that that might have been actually the last incident I think then after that they did they did start running oil in the prisons but the chain of events set off by the attack on during Barrow were only just getting started terrible thing to do to what I believe as a peaceful man as I know him to be honest you know if you're gonna harm somebody that a lot of people are close to people are gonna get yum most of Franklin's Muslim population have nothing to do with terrorism 99 of Muslims in prison are not in on terrorism charges but seeing fellow Muslims being attacked by White prisoners sparked a conflict over race and religion so when Muslims get attacked you know there's going to be there's going to be a comeback for them simple as that the atmosphere on the wing when you walk in and and that sounds strange but you can sometimes you can walk on the wing and it's you can just feel that you can feel that tension and it did come to a point where the whole Wing went up everyone was fighting each other was like the Muslim ads against the white Lads and it went off like big Style with it being an L-shaped wing on f-wing obviously we were on this side of the wing whilst it was happening on the other side um and everyone started running towards the gates but the screws locked the gates so nobody could get through and obviously you could just hear all the commotionally alarms were going off the screws were running on the wing it was just going off for about half an hour and I was glad I was around this side out the way [Music] eventually regained control of the wing tensions and conflicts powered by the attack on Barrow were lasting so then it develops it becomes US versus them the non-believers and the Believers and one of the most loathed men in Franklin chooses a side in this conflict perhaps hoping for protection he's got no respect in the system whatsoever and to make it even worse he's a big lump of the Giza which makes him more of a target for people in Franklin prison in the 2000s there were growing tensions over race and religion and prisoners would pick insides yummy was a prisoner who was serving 12 years for robbery with an imitation firearm this sentence soy and being juggled between different category a prisons including stints of Franklin he found himself inspired by the Muslim Community or Brotherhood he met inside the one of the most loved men in the prison system was about to enter The Fray a lot of Muslim Brotherhood I got on quite well with were coming in slowly and then quickly into the kai system and I converted some of the brothers that I met I took a shiny and you know some of the brothers were passing me material hadiths and stuff like that 16 of Franklin's population are Muslim and a growing number of these are converts like yummy he found the appeal of Islam was that it offered a spiritual structure for tackling some of his issues I had the diction problems at that time I thought the routine and the way that is designed Islam as well as love in our life of course I thought well I'll convert there and take it really seriously and see if if that can cure me and it was probably my best nine months in the case of clean time to be honest so it did help me for other converts there may be more cynical motivations for finding Islam when Levi bellfield was sent to Franklin in 2011 almost immediately he became a Muslim inside Franklin bellfield goes by the name Youssef Raheem Belfield is responsible for three murders and one attempted murder the murder of Emily de La Grange the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy the murder the Marshall McDonald and the murder of Millie dollar bellfield is one of the very few men in Franklin and in the prison system as a whole to be serving a whole life sentence he'd already been given this when he was linked to the murder of Millie Dowler Howard crimes so I call him most crimes cowards because you've taken advantage of a vulnerability of a people at Belfield because you know that you can't lose that he is a manipulative sly unfeeling monster and if you've ever had the pleasure or displeasure of being within a foot of him you'd know exactly what I meant it's 20 stone his neck size is 19 and a half inches and he's six foot one he's very intimidating especially when you see his temper yummy and Levi's paths crossed in a number of category air prisons and Yami formed an instant view on bellfield fearful looking man right I hated him like I hated his guts on site I was in the presence of real evil so why would a violent and unrepentant man want to convert to a religion that preaches peace normal criminals who haven't the faith of Islam will no way Jose will be accepting him and inviting him around for a cup of tea to theirselves Levi bellfield wanted to convert to Islam just to be award and be part of the Muslim gang so to speak he becomes one of them and then he's then got protection from them and bellfield is certainly in need of protection other prisoners are disgusted by him he's got no respect in the system whatsoever and to make it even worse he's a big lump of the Giza which makes him more of a target for people because a lot of guys want to do someone like him but they don't want to do some weak sniveling geezer there's a convert bellfield now had to be taken to and from the mosque for services which meant ordinary prisoners like Yami could get close to one of the most loved men in the prison system he said a couple of goodbyes to a couple of brothers and then I made my move as I was going past he turned his head that way looked at me and the screws was found in there like waiting for him to stop holding core and get back to where we're going so as you turn around he faced me I head butted him on the bridge of his nose and blood started pouring out of his nose his face went purple he never got no no chance for retaliation uh and I carried on moving away um back to my wing whatever they might privately feel about it at hmp Franklin screws are responsible for the welfare of some of the most notorious and hated men in Britain child killer Ian Huntley was transferred to Franklin in 2008 and instantly made a name for himself as a tricky prisoner gods he got this thing where he was famous he kind of had this other children he liked to push boundaries sometimes POS are encouraged to treat volatile Huntley with kid gloves but Craig went in with a firm approach but I kind of sat me stall out with them straight away I think he's when I went in there I said hunt the army stuff for the day and he was like I'll be referred to as Mr Huntley and I was like no no it's only and you'll call me Mr Wilde and that was that was the end of it Ian Huntley is serving a minimum of 40 years for two brutal killings which mortified Britain on Sunday afternoon in August 2002 schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman left a barbecue to go to the local shop in sewn to buy sweets they never returned and tobacco's tonight in that evening they were reported missing within hours of their disappearance police from three forces and hundreds of townspoke have joined the hunt for Holly and Jessica Soccer Star David Beckham appeals for them to come home but by Wednesday August the 7th police fear they're dealing with a Criminal abduction too everyone anyone who's got children must know what we're going through invited just holding into the house of the house supposedly to see Maxine who they knew from school it was a lie from the beginning [Music] Ian Huntley pretended to help with the search for the missing girls positioning himself as a concerned local resident people have felt in the dark and felt like um we can't do anything to assist the place we all want to do something but nobody quite knows what and one of the most chilling moments of Television I can remember is when uh Huntley was interviewed outside the house by a sky news reporter who said you must have been the last person to see them alive and he says calmly as you can imagine yes I probably was how did they seem to you seemed fine very cheerful happy chatty I didn't say anything untoward nobody hanging around you know just seemed like normal Happy Kids save them well yeah yeah absolutely and you may as it turned out to be the last person to actually chat to them before they vanished yeah that's what it seems like I think because it was such a poignant picture of the two girls wearing their Manchester United shirts and which were incidentally found in huntless Residence that it shocked a whole generation of parents were they was it safe to let their goals walk to the Village shop in a Cambridge Village well the answer was no he was arrested in fact on the day that their bodies their decomposed bodies were found in a ditch near RAF lakenheath after pretending to help search for the missing girls for 13 days Ian Huntley was a mast as their killer and at his trial in 2003 he was handed two life sentences prison officer Craig quickly discovered how much delight this brutal killer took in his notoriety the crimes had been on national TV and it's been spoke about amongst everybody yeah I think I certainly did certainly enjoy that side of things yeah definitely because of huntley's Fame and not righty prison other prisoners were jealous of that and that the as soon as he came on the wing they would have attacked him immediately his crimes made him a target for other prisoners so Franklin's staff had to come up with a plan to keep him safe in a prison full of killers there would have been a queue for a people to get Huntley if they could have done brazon safety was kept away from that it was kept in in segregation and he was kept in the hospital wouldn't he and then that's where he spent the majority of his time but no place in Franklin is ever going to be entirely safe for Ian Huntley the men in here have made a habit of violence and they're primed to take an opportunity I was just young at the time when I was in that mindset where I just didn't give a [ __ ] about anything or still having them violent thoughts and I felt violent and to Ricky someone like Huntley was the perfect Target Ricky's chance to get her Ian Huntley came when he and some maze visited the hospital wing for their appointments so as we got down there we actually seen him on the other side of the door he was waiting he was about 20 foot away waiting to go through on the other side to go batteries wing but we um The Scrooge opened the door and those four of us just went legging it towards Huntly we just missed them by seconds will mean the rest of the lives were going to stamp all over and forgot all of them another was scared for the soham Killer unsurprisingly though the Franklin prisoners have got their hands on him and he's been attacked repeatedly um with sir improvised weapons razor blade and toothbrush water boiling water not surprising Damien folks an armed robber for example attacked Hundley in 2010 and slit his throat with an improvised weapon it wasn't the first time Huntley had been attacked nor will it be the last Huntley is hated isolated and will spend the best part of his life in prison he's made a number of suicide attempts and it's the responsibility of Franklin screws to stop him succeeding he'd threatened to kill himself so he'd be put on on a um on like a suicide watch and what he was on a constant so he he had a member of Staff basically sit there and watch him for 12 hours through the day and he had another member of stuff he would come another night and just sit and watch him sleep for 12 hours on the night you hear me 12 hours went slowly while some may consider Huntly to be among the worst of the worst prison officers have to put their personal feelings aside like Craig did and accept that part of their job is looking after prisoners like him it would be hard going in and dealing in those situations and dealing with them prisoners knowing that the crimes they've committed against children but you've just got to be professional you've just got to do your job screws at Franklin May deal with notorious Killers every day but they can't afford to get complacent there's always a chance that a murderer will strike again [Music] the blood that started to come out and I realized that he accepted me artery foreign in 2010 there was a bloody clash between a prisoner and the prison officers one of the most controversial events in the prison's history now we hear accounts from both sides Kevin thackeray was convicted along with his elder brother of killing three drug dealers also convicted of two attempted murders of two women who happen to be in the house the killings committed by the brothers were under what is known in British laws joint Enterprise which doesn't distinguish between which of the brothers actually pulled the trigger or stabbed the women the judge acknowledged his elder brother probably initiated the killing cold-blooded killing as the judge called it both brothers received life sentences and were sent to category prisons in 2010 they ended up on the same Wing at hmp Franklin the wing the prison officer Craig Wilde was working on we had Mike ethakra as he went by arrive on the wing and he he wasn't a problem he was quite Flash and I was handed him certainly liked as designer gear and then we had his brother arrive on the wing um for about eight nine months later changed then pale Craig says that when thakura arrived both brothers started acting out they started becoming a bit of a control problem both of them the kind of fed off each other Craig says that prison officers put Caravan on the basic regime to sanction his behavior so he'd been put on basic and he decided to barricade himself in a cell it's all right we're gonna have to go on now get a dog with Al Madonna in the shield and go and get him out the sailboat so when the call came through and they said no just leave him the following day Craig was on duty and says he saw a female prison officer approaching thakura's barricaded cell on her own so I tell a little weird and I went down this and I got as I got close to the door I just said is he all right and she went yes this is right open the door and she opened the door and he'd come out aggressive and Shelton tell him like he was Shelton Come on or something like that so I've grabbed him by the Scruff of the neck and I've started to push him back into his cell um if I didn't realize that he had a he had a broken glass bottle right it was hand and he's coming he's stopped us with it and it's getting us underneath the arm and the armpit and the arm just gave Wayne that I saw the blood that started to come out and I realized that he severed me out of me I was running back along the wing two members of stuff came in and they took it in turns just pressing and sitting across me chest and pressing down on the wound let's try and stop the bleeding and I started to get more tired and I just thought yeah maybe maybe this is it now you're always I was gonna bleed out there there and then in this in this room in the middle of a in the middle of a prison I'd lost a proximately airplane supplied by time I got to University Hospital [Applause] in hmp Franklin a violent prisoner had come close to killing staff in a call from inside Kevin Thacker tells us what he claims triggered the incident being Asian and in Franklin is uh I mean the racism there from both sides the employees and the prisoners it it's been the case for decades [Music] things escalated thakura claims when his brother Mikey was sent to the segregation unit fakra alleges that in the sake my king of the prisoners of puller were attacked by the screws they were gonna go doing some racist attacks and I had a busy booked he had one book as well there was a joint visit with our family I think the day after or two days after he had been assaulted it had a food print on his face whether it's stamped on it and he told us what had happened not only to him but to other people fakra alleges he reported these attacks to his MP and to the police and the prison responded by downgrade in his prison privileges was going to remain on Bay prison and if I didn't want to do it on the wing I can do it in the seg and get the same beings that my brother was getting this was all said with abusive language racial language they attacked me on the landing and threw me in the cell and locked the door I'd heard them talking about assaulting me so I threw the cupboard in front of the door and barricaded it so they couldn't get in these were the events that Thacker claims led up to the attack Craig disputes thakura's version of events Kevin was on basic because of his attitude and his behavior it had nothing to do with the color of the skin or as religious background there's no truth whatsoever well Kevin that was saying about the incident and that it occurred because it was being racially abused or it was self-defense because he was worried what staff were going to do thakur was charged with the attempted murder of Craig and the female officer and with wounding within 10 a third po What followed was one of the biggest trials in Franklin's history engulfing the prison prisoners and prison guards took the stand as Witnesses for each side fakhra argued that the attack was a preemptive strike and he acted in self-defense as he believed he was going to be attacked by officers and call new details emerged about thakura's frame of mind leading up to the attack his friend Paul remembers the case prison psychiatrists who actually initially was there for the prosecution basically jumped sides and so that Kevin suffered at the post-traumatic stress before so when he saw from the cell that treated in that is why he fought back thakras PTSD was diagnosed when he arrived at Franklin but it stemmed from being attacked by prison guards in a different prison in court the jury must have accepted that in that state he genuinely believed force was needed to defend himself and he was cleared of all charges the jury concluded or agreed that he was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and didn't therefore increase his sentence it was a serious blow for Craig and the other injured officers he could have killed me that day and killed another three prisoners of members of Staff or anyone and he just would not have cared he would have still found a way to make it like it wasn't his fault it's fascinating is it not that uh at the trial for these attacks on the Waters of Franklin the jury unanimously found thakura innocent and although I was acquitted of the charge the prison Officers Association tried to instigate a private prosecution which failed consequences of what happened that day are lasting Craig didn't regain the use of his arm and hand he had no choice but to retire from the prison service nerve damage uh chronic pain and the the being nerves was also to me arm had nerves and tendons taken out of out of my legs and I ended off with a lot of muscle wastage which won't come back that's all Scar Tissue now and the deformed give me hands that did try to make me hand kind of is it a normal position but it's just it's clawed and and wasted so that'll never come back that that's postmatic stress severe depression and it just had a massive knock-on effect it had a normal effect with relationships relationships with my children [Music] while fakra may have been cleared by the jury there would be consequences on his return to prison some people would call it inhumane some people might even say it was torture what on Earth else can we do with someone who's prepared to attack prison officers with a broken bottle foreign a prisoner at Franklin who has stabbed officers with a broken bottle was found not guilty of all charges in court but the prison establishment still had to deal with thakura for then before I did to keep him in poultry from farmer Thacker was referred to the Clause supervision Center or CSC system which holds some of the most dangerous men in prison in very restrictive conditions and close supervision is exactly what it says on the tin a very close watch is kept on each individual prisoner the CSC programmer came back with important is designed to weaken you and you know take the fight out of you yeah and you don't have contact with no one else they feed you through the door who have like five offices to unlock with shields and helmets on to intimidate you and it's just a very draining existence and I've not seen anyone go through that system and come out the same throughout the prison system there are about 60 men in close supervision centers being treated in the same way as Kevan thakura and a lot of the guys when they first come on the CSC if they're not already met Neil they become mentally ill and within a matter of months or years end up in hospital from suffering the conditions of life in the CSC 2015 report found that there were a disproportionately high number of Muslim black and minority ethnic prisoners in the CSC system while prisoners can be deselected from the CSC few actually are an argument rage is about whether detaining prisoners like this for years is justifiable [Music] prisoners deserve to be in a prison within a prison but deserve to be in a CSA system definitely I know a lot of members of the public they won't understand that they'll think well noise has been a product of this or stuff must have done this there's a reason he's like this but some people are just evil people and it's it's as simple as that in 2021 the UN special rapporteur on torture Nils melzer visited thakura and saw how he was living when used for more than 15 consecutive days these conditions of detention amount to torture was Mel's verdict has been kept in these conditions for over a decade in response the ministry of Justice said we strongly disagree with this depiction of close supervision centers which are only used when a prisoner pauses a significant risk of harm to others some people would call it inhumane I would say that a lot of people would say what on Earth else can we do with someone who's prepared to attack prison officers with a broken bottle isolation has long been used as a tool for punishment of Franklin Paul was sent here in the 1980s and didn't even see the communal wings when I first went there I went into the segregation Union which was quite crowded quite overfall and that was because staff had a strike forward strategy or policy in relation to president who they considered to be difficult there were Place range for segregation and it was a widely staff were able to maintain what they believe as a total control of the prison Paul had a tendency to rebel against the screws organizing protests and advocating for prisoners rights his wife Franklin sent him straight to the segregation unit and ultimately it cost him dearly I was originally sentenced to life imprisonment with the judge's recommendation I must serve no less than 25 years I eventually spent over 40 years in prison because of what was defined or called my oppositional Defiance disorder or otherwise my propensity to cause trouble [Music] but life for Paul wasn't defeated by Franklin shoving him in the sake although he was trapped in a single cell for 23 hours a day he made use of his cell's tiny window why am I easy to arrive in the seg unit of Franklin which as I say was quite overcrowded at the time by what staff would consider the most subversive and manageable prisoners we established almost a community just by conversing and talking out of Windows you know we would have question and answer sessions quizzes out of the window uh sing songs yeah but then you're down to say he said I pass the time we said about quiz Master one of the ways to make up a load of questions uh suppose I said well I was good at uh I'm dumb uh yeah all sorts of some sometimes I didn't understand the questions yeah it's a very educated people in prison I should say one of them I think I used to sing Irish rebel songs My heritage amazing incredible community of prisoners and it was a mode of defiance and solidarity there so yeah I'll be Alexander for 28 days I found it quite an inspiring experience actually yeah foreign [Music] bars loneliness is part of what grinds you down at Franklin obviously when you're coming out talking with your friends on the wing and all out at the end of the day you're always going back behind your door by yourself and you're just stuck with your own thoughts stop by yourself thinking about the outside world so in Israel that is a lonely play as prison women on the outside become a major Obsession for Franklin's prisoners many Cate prisoners are only entitled to three or four visits a month and the UK doesn't allow conjugal visits nonetheless some prisoners managed to hang on to relationships from before prison like Gary who was serving a life sentence and then uh one of my partners come up and I posted a room with not a lot of people when I didn't see the camera so he's in a room right [ __ ] office for just us and it's been a long well I said I had sex on a visit while some single Franklin prisoners benefit from strange phenomenon women who want to meet and date serious criminals there is a kind of a a black market in um in sort of relationships if you like and when I say relationships I mean sort of not deep relationships you have casual relationships with a geezers give you a bird who lives around his way who likes who likes to look at you because she said one of your focus to it you know that's that's the kind of relationships peripheral when and and sad really like sometimes you might have a friend who's a prisoner who's got a girlfriend and his girlfriend's got a friend and you start writing her and talking to her on the phone and the next minute she's visiting you that happened to me a few times [Music] Leroy's letter writing romance developed and soon he found himself receiving a visit at Christmas time a busy period in Franklin's category a visitor Suite I was overbooked and it was falling in my visit came so they gave me an illegal cubicle yeah and the man that's the staff man left me in there yeah he did and and yeah she yeah she gave me stuff and he saw he saw it from an angle he did see a little bit but after he was walking back to the wing he was like he was making a joke of me saying that one of the other staff was telling him to stop me yeah but he said he said he's not stopping me he said he's not he's not holding that over me you understand so there was a man who would do a bit of humanity it's not just those on normal location who have the right to form relationships any frankler prisoner even those on whole life sentences can receive letters and welcome visitors women who write in because they're they're attracted to the mend they've seen them on on the Telly and they'll write in and a lot of Violent Men get fan letters from women um in fact there's actually a term for it it's called hybristophilia these are women who are aroused by violent or offensive acts other women who seek out prisoners have said they have different motivations including ironically feeling safe knowing that they can control the contact in a relationship and their partner can't hurt them because every day is in a high security environment you get one when you go down visits who have met them through kind of prisoner dating sites um and they'll come in and and sit and meet them and and things like that it is it is quite surreal knowing that the crimes that they're in for and these women are still like well yes I want to be with you in May 2022 reports came out that one of Franklin's most notorious prisoners had a new woman in his life well Belfield had all sorts of reasons to uh get back into the public eye at one point he confessed quotes to the Chittenden killings of you know Megan Russell he didn't kill Megan Russell not his handmiting at all he also bragged that he was going to get married bellfield met his fiancee through letter writing and UK law says he can apply for a marriage license he was given two whole life terms which means that he will never be released because prisoners can be quite manipulative very manipulative so whether he's he's what conversation he's having with this woman and what he's telling this woman but she said no kid in a normal relationship only the governor can put a stop to Levi bellfield's nuptials he can refuse to let the wedding happen within Franklin's walls I don't think Bellefield should be allowed to marry I don't think he's ever demonstrated one second of empathy for another human being only thing he cared about was his dog personally I don't think he deserves any human rights I talk to the relatives of his victims where are their human rights it will horrify the population the prison population and the population at large clearly this is an extreme view but Franklin provokes a dramatic reaction in many who pass through its doors I didn't think I deserved that sense because that sentence was just brought out for dangerous predators there's the incredibly damaging and devastating effect on this state of mind and many commit suicide at the age of 21 Ricky was sent to Franklin for gbh with intent he'd slashed a man with a machete his victim survived with a nasty injury and Ricky was given a daunting sentence the sentence I got was him IPP and on Peabody's 99-year sentence these have your sentence on outside of your door and on my door had like 99 years ipps sentences of imprisonment for public protection came in in 2005. they were immediately controversial as ipps sent supposedly lesser criminals to prison on terms similar to murderers with no fixed release date when I got that sentence it didn't really sing in at first you won't be released until the parole board think that you're no longer a risk to the public there was quite a few people serving ipps in front of them because they were clusters life as they were just sending them all to the high security prison IPP prisoners like Ricky were given a so-called tariff a minimum term Ricky's was four years but he knew he might save years or even decades longer but I didn't feel like I was at risk I didn't feel like I was a risk to the publics who are I didn't think I deserved that sense because that sentence was just brought out for dangerous predators and they were ended up giving it to too many people the idea when he was created was that it's going to help we're only going to use it on about 900 people 10 times that were actually given ipps were intended to protect the public from violent criminals but they were given out to people who stole mobile phones got involved in punch-ups or jacked bikes I know lots of people in there was small carriers they were supposed to do a small sentence and they've been in there 10 years over [Music] some more than 10 years over and they're just sitting there wasting away demoralizes them makes them have no hope no future set your anxiety off and and be actually depressed not known when you're ever going to be released and you can't tell your family back home your family's seeing like when are you coming home or and you can't tell them because you're stuck in there without a release date so I have to contemplate and recognize that I may never ever ever be released from prison there's an incredibly damaging and devastating effect on this state of mind and many commit suicide tragically 71 IPP prisoners have killed themselves that's around twice the rate of suicide for other prisoners it is something that we used to talk about amongst each other and see a like not that we were going to do but wonder what going through people's head just before they do it and what what where they would do it Ricky didn't get out when his four-year tariff elapsed the parole board turned him down yeah when I got to Franklin obviously I still had my girlfriend and stock buyers I did see it here at one point A.M just go and deal with your own thing like don't sweat around for me because I could be in for x amount of years I never knew her but then a year later Ricky was one of the lucky IPP prisoners to convince the parole board he was safe to release my girlfriend was waiting for us at the gates I'm always thinking about was going to McDonald's to get a Big Mac and yeah I went and McDonald's got a Big Mac and I was disappointed in the size but it was Tiny I had to get two of them judges stopped handing out these oppressive sentences in 2012. but if you were already serving an IPP you were trapped today 1722 IPP prisoners are still behind bars blanket who was having sex with the time of the introduction of ipps who subsequently called it the stain on our history and his worst mistake I think he was right it's very very blunt weapon and didn't work and it's left trauma in its wake since his release Ricky is connected with the families of some of these prisoners and has become acutely aware of how lucky he was to actually find a way out and the ipps have been abolished for No 10 years but yet everybody still kept on them and there's some Lads in prison being in for like 17 years for for robbing a bike when it was 17 year old it's just our readers someone needs to be dorm of that sentence but a decade later things spiraled for Ricky he was charged with aggravated vehicle taking and the terms of his IPP sentence meant he was going back behind bars Ricky was sent to none other the Franklin and he was nothing like his first excited arrival at these Gates this time the difference was I didn't want to go to prison so I got recalled like my head was just in bits not knowing when I was going to be released and he um my kids were the youngest there was only two and three at the time and the kids died when you're coming home and I couldn't tell them and not for me was the the worst part 2020 Ricky found himself locked up in the UK's official lockdown meaning he barely left his single occupancy cell I got locked down on the covert as well so I didn't have any contact didn't see me children for a year months and so that was a really hard time back behind bars Ricky's mental health deteriorated I was suffering with anxiety again I was unbearable of feelings I was on and I put in to see the doctors and it took 10 weeks before seen anybody any um some of the people that are seen in prisoner just had Big Slice marks all up their arms and being cut in the faces because they weren't getting any help they weren't getting the medication that they needed and they were just locked behind the doors nearly 23 hours a day self hominin just with no help 2020 report Franklin had worrying levels of self-harm amongst his prisoners higher than other cat is the place that had once seemed exciting to Ricky now seemed tragic he was desperate to get out again I've been in for 30 months um I've done another course whilst I was in and I just kept my head down they um got on with the time and I got out after 13 months now he's back at home with his family Ricky avoids thinking about his long history with Franklin it's been 17 years I don't look back and focus on negative things because it just brings you back do I just focus on the here are known for is on the future on positive things but Rick is still under probation if he makes a wrong step he could find himself back in Franklin's holding cell reading the words welcome to hell all over again it's just a horrible existence being behind them walls I'm just so glad I'm on this side of the war now foreign [Music] service spokesperson said the claims made by former inmates are historical claims with no evidence to support them and have no relevance to Franklin today a recent report into the prison highlighted the positive relationships between staff and offenders with no incidence of racism or discrimination and how the establishment maintains safety during the pandemic [Music] thank you

Channel: Behind the Bars TV - Ricky Killeen

Views: 1,294,298

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Id: RPoO8u5MhLI

Length: 66min 46sec (4006 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2023