Wakefield Prison: The UK's Monster Mansion

this video is brought to you by squarespace whether it's your new profession or just a lifelong passion start your journey to website glory with squarespace check out their awesome all in one platform through the link in the description below more on them in just a bit city of wakefield north of england yorkshire you can head east from the cathedral turn right onto parliament street and then continue on to love lane that all sounds very quaint and endearing on paper number 5. love lane and yet beyond the front door one man has been living inside a concrete and glass cage in complete isolation for nearly 40 years welcome to hmp wakefield in today's geographics we'll learn about the history of what started as a model victorian prison eventually it transformed into the uk super max guarding the most dangerous convicts in the country welcome to the monster mansion the first incarnation of a majesty's prison was the wakefield house of correction opened in 1595 thanks to an endowment of 20 pounds left by local barrister george seville in his will little is known about the original building except that minor repairs were needed due to the frequent escapes early prisoners at wakefield were kept in dire conditions men and women had to share the same filthy primitive facilities with their legs shackled in irons they were kept under watch by non-salaried staff whose only money came from selling whatever work was completed by the convicts the primary function of the house of correction was not to punish the detainees but rather to hold them until their trial if they received a guilty sentence they would be transported to a larger prison or the american colonies or maybe even to the gallows following a major jailbreak in 1764 local magistrates ordered the construction of an entirely new and safer house of corrections two years later the job was given to architect john carr after july of 1776 the american colonies became independent at least in the sense that they were no longer willing to absorb the cream of the criminal british crop what to do with these fine ladies and gentlemen then well that was easy send them to australia at the end of the 18th century the common practice was to keep convicts in custody for two years before sending them down under they could be kept in correction houses like wakefield or locked up inside the hulks or decommissioned naval vessels moored in the thames estuary or off the southern coast both the hulks and correction houses were generally filthy overcrowded and managed by private contractors who were prone to corruption sounds familiar in the early 19th century authorities decided to abolish the hulks altogether and expand and improve the houses of correction creating the early system of penitentiaries in britain as the rate of deportation to australia decreased these new prisons became institutions dedicated to punishing convicts rather than just holding them until trial or transportation wakefield was no exception in 1800 further buildings were added by the local authority in charge the west riding of yorkshire justices these included a reception area where prisoners could be washed given a change of clothes and even seen by the surgeon in 1823 the justices added a house for the prison governor and an additional 193 cells in 1834 wakefield was one of the first prisons to adopt the silent system one of two models utilized in the victorian period in essence prisoners were allowed to eat work exercise together whatever but they had to keep silent at all times the other option known as the separate system required convicts to spend their days in strict confinement the only exceptions were chapel service and the exercise yard both systems were considered inhumane and had their critics even still wakefield had a reputation for being a modern facility that was ahead of its time in the 1840s the west riding justices recognized that overcrowding was a problem yet again a census in the year 1843 counted an average daily presence of 711 convicts in 1824 following the last major overhaul the daily population had been virtually half of that 383 rather than expanding the existing building the justices opted to order the construction of a completely new larger and even genuinely modern prison structure in 1847 after four years of building work a new main gate of wakefield jail on love lane opened to the public the new prison was one of the largest and best equipped in the world the design of the building proved so durable that it is still used as the main accommodation facility to this day the new plan had been designed by bernard hartley surveyor for the west riding yorkshire harley's plan had four wings radiating in a half cartwheel plan around a central structure each wing had four stories housing a total of 732 cells each cell was furnished with a hammock a small round table a three-legged stool and a gas light the inmates were given a warm bath every two weeks had access to limited education and depending on the severity of their crimes could work at their trade of choice records show that the jail did not reach full capacity until 1858 indicating good management practices that avoided overcrowding prisoners in wakefield also benefited from good exercise regimen which included a program of brisk walking for older convicts in 1852 this wakefield walk was exported to prisons across britain as an antidote to the epidemic of mental illness likewise juvenile delinquents were allowed and encouraged to move about until 1854 they were kept inside small cells in solitary confinement mainly for their own protection against older hardened criminals but a contemporary inspection reported that they suffered from debility and contraction of the joints so the boys were permitted to play at leapfrog and other similar recreations but wakefield was a prison in the north of england after all club med this certainly was not under prison regulations most convicts were expected to conduct three months of first-class hard labor on arrival followed by a period of lighter second-class labor first-class labor usually involved repetitive exhausting and generally pointless physical work carried out for shifts of six hours with little to no breaks typical activities included stone breaking or the shot drill basically you had to pick up a heavy cannon ball make one step sideways and drop it to the floor for the next inmate in line only to do the same thing but the worst type of labor was the infamous treadwell the sadist's version of a stair climber prisoners were expected by the prison disciplined society to complete 12 000 feet of ascent per diem that's roughly equivalent to climbing the matterhorn in the swiss alps every single day luckily for prisoners wakefield governor edward shepherd was rather business savvy and disapproved of unproductive labor thus at some point prior to his retirement in 1864 shepard removed the tread world and replaced it with a successful mat making enterprise wakefield was able to make a gross revenue of 40 000 pounds per year until april 1 1878. that's 4.9 million pounds today about 6.7 million dollars now i did not pick that date at random april fool's day 1878 was when the prison act of 1877 came into effect this law ensured that all prisons came under the centralized administration of the home office meaning local authorities and governors could not profit from their inmates activities shortly after the prison act a new block was opened at wakefield a detached building for female prisoners it's not that male and female prisoners used to share accommodation before that but they were lodged in different wings of the same structure and would use the same exercise yard according to prison law wakefield governor rs duncan composed the traditional children's song here we go round the mulberry bush while watching female prisoners walking around a mulberry tree in the yard the inmates in the women's block would ultimately enjoy better overall treatment than their male counterparts their forced labor was lighter than the men's usually involving duties in the kitchen and laundry women also had access to better education or at the very least they were instructed more closely by imprisoned educators who taught literacy and numeracy to classes of 10 individuals or less unlike male convicts females were granted the privilege of receiving visitors these were usually middle or upper class ladies who undertook social and religious work for example reforming prostitutes or promoting temperance finally women who gave birth in wakefield could keep their babies with them in a dedicated nursery provided they were breastfeeding these young moms were exonerated from work and if they had access to education they might actually find themselves in an easier position than mothers who were not in the prison all in all compared to other victorian prisons wakefield appeared to be well managed and ahead of its time but it was by no means a pleasant place housing its fair share of violent murderers just waiting to go swinging on the noose [Music] the majority of convicts awaiting capital punishment were sent to york or leeds for their final journey but between 1906 and 1915 ten men were hanged in wakefield at least three of them were hanged by henry and thomas pierpont this is an interesting family by the way henry his brother thomas and his later son albert carried out more than 900 executions over two generations their clients in wakefield included a string of lands who dabbled in sadism rape bestiality and pedophilia and who were all sentenced for killing their wives or partners the notable example was william warris galbraith a veteran of the army medical corps in august of 1912 he warned two friends that they would see the bloodiest headlines in the papers the next day around the same time his 20-year-old wife mary may was confiding to a friend that she was terrified for her life a few days later william slashed mary's throat she was four months pregnant two years after the execution of galbraith wakefield underwent some radical changes first in 1914 it became a male-only prison then with the beginning of world war 1 the administration was taken over by the war office which used it as a military detention center initially the yorkshire jail detained military personnel but in september of 1918 it welcomed an influx of conscientious objectors or cos at that time the war officers had interncios and several centers around the country where they worked at hard labor and were allowed little contact with the exterior much like the ordinary criminals the concern was that they could spread descent and pacifist ideals then 123 hardcore ceos known as absolutists were transferred to love lane in what became known as the wakefield experiment the idea was to give the absolutists a certain degree of autonomy while delaying their release for as long as possible the conditions the cos found at wakefield were indeed far from draconian the cells were not locked and inmates could receive parcels and see visitors and wear civilian clothing provided they completed some light maintenance work in the prison they could receive pocket money for essential supplies but the interned absolutists didn't want to compromise with the government on the 18th of september 117 of the objectives revolted against the governor going on strike and issuing the manifesto of the absolutists at wakefield they rejected the better conditions they were given demanding unconditional liberty and discharge from the army failing that they preferred to return to a harsher prison regime and that's exactly what happened the war office declared the experiment failed after a few days and returned the wakefield absolutists to their original jails wayfield continued to work for the war office until 1923 when it was returned to civilian duties under the home office now you might not be running a prison but maybe 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established a small camp for 50 convicts in the nearby woods the following march the site was officially declared a prison administered as a satellite of wakefield these boy scouts of wakefield dodged a few very non-metaphorical bullets some years later with the start of world war ii the luftwaffe began targeting nearby sheffield an important industrial center but in december 1940 a german bomber mistook wakefield for some steel works or a weapons factory and dropped 23 bombs in the exercise yard luckily the bombs did not explode but they did leave some very large craters in the ground the royal engineers came to dispose of the bombs but three months later during that time we'd imagine that those prisoners tread very lightly in the yard besides this incident life at wakefield during and immediately after the war was relatively quiet the jail in love lane made it to the news again in december 1952 when a dangerous convict succeeded in escaping its walls this was robert harrington sanders who was behind bars for the attempted murder of a detective constable sanders was a model prisoner and had been awarded the privileged role of stoker every night at 8 pm the stoker could take an unsupervised walk in the yard to fire up the prison boilers but on one of these nights sanders swung grappling hook high over the promoter wall he had attached it to some long sturdy electrical cables but she climbed with relative ease a later inquiry at the house of commons revealed that since the end of the war 29 convicts had successfully escaped from wakefield the next daring escape was the break out of ira members seems murphy and correctly described by some sources as the only man to succeed in escaping from wakefield murphy had been arrested in 1955 while raiding an army depot in the south of england he had been sentenced to life in prison a sentence he wild away playing chess with the likes of klaus fuchs a german scientist jailed for giving atomic secrets to the soviets on february 12 1959 two accomplices threw a rope over the prison wall allowing murphy to climb to freedom interesting bit here for this plan the ira worked with eoka a greek cypriot nationalist guerrilla operation the operation was in fact funded by a cypriot woman who donated 500 pounds of her wedding dowry to help finance the plan all in all based on the information we found the security measures of wakefield were breached at least 31 times in 15 years and it may have been these statistics that prompted the home office to increase security measures on love line and to overhaul the prison's purpose and designation yet again for the 20th century by the end of 1969 wayfield was one of five dispersal prisons in the uk this term indicates extra secure facilities housing category a prisoners which are those posing a threat to the public police or national security [Music] in recent times h p wakefield has earned its nickname as monster mansion thanks to the criminal record of many of its occupants the jail housed several pedophiles rapists and various other sex offenders as well as category a prisoners like serial killers and convicts guilty of extreme violence towards prison staff or fellow inmates the most dangerous prisoners are sent to the f-wing which is itself divided into two units first there is the close supervision center exceptional risk management unit also referred to as the exceptional risk unit the eight cells in this unit house prisoners with a history of violence who are deemed to present a high risk to others each of these prisoners requires increased levels of supervision and security but they are also supported via a care plan that gradually and eventually restores them to a standard prison regime a prisoner may spend 40 months on average in the exceptional risk unit on the other side of f-wing you can find the segregation unit or more simply the seg this contains 21 cells where convicts are locked up in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day with very little contact with the outside world sometimes prisoners in the seg may even be denied the stipulated one hour of outdoor exercise the seg is intended as a temporary measure in fact based on uk averages 71 of convicts in the unit were locked up there for fewer than 14 days and there is quite good reason why time integration is reduced as much as possible according to a study by the ministry of justice more than half of seg prisoners suffered from mental health problems anxiety depression anger management concentration issues insomnia and an increased risk of self-harm the officers supervising them agreed with this assessment with two-thirds of them saying that the majority of their prisoners suffered from mental health issues and yet some convicts may benefit from the segregation regime and may actually look to move there some seek solace from the chaos of ordinary cell blocks or may want to escape the pressures of drug and substance abuse others may want to gain direct access to prison management or escape threats of violence from other prisoners over the years f-wing in wakefield has had the honor of playing host the a-list as a british crime for example dr harold shipman arguably the world's most prolific serial killer was jailed here and it was a love line that the uk's own doctor death claimed his last life his own shaman hanged himself on january 13 2004 using bed sheets as a makeshift rope today we'd like to introduce two residents of f wing that may not be as well known outside of the circles of true crime fanatics the first character was born michael gordon peterson in 1952 he now goes by the name charles salvador but he achieved fame as charles bronson peterson was first convicted of a robbery in 1971 spending most of the 1970s and 80s in and out of jail during this period he earned a reputation as a highly dangerous prisoner frequently attacking fellow convicts and prison guards in 1987 peterson returned to freedom and took to bare knuckle boxing on advice of his promoter he adopted the name of american actor charles bronson his boxing career was cut short by yet another arrest this time for stealing a ring for his girlfriend on new year's day 1988. in 1994 bronson was transferred for the first time into wakefield's segregation unit here prison officers encouraged the violent convict to take up art the robber reiter and ben uncle boxer took to painting with gusto and even published a book on keeping fit in the seg i'd love to tell you that the art solved his little anger management problem but it totally didn't let's just say that it helped mitigate some of its consequences though in june of 2014 bronson had a fist fight with 12 officers in another prison hmp woodhill apparently this upset his mother so much that he decided to buy her a holiday as a present now holidays don't come cheap but bronson was able to sell at auction three of his paintings for a total of 2 630 pounds by december 2015 bronson had changed his name to charles salvador and homage to salvador dali painter convict was serving another stint at wakefield this time in the exceptional risk unit soon after in november of 2017 love lane was for once worthy of its name this is when wakefield became the setting for salvador's wedding with actress paula williamson at the ceremony wakefield governor mark dougherty forbade guests from taking photos of the bride or groom so that they could not be passed to the media this angered salvador who took the ban as a sign of disrespect towards his wife so in january 2018 during a meeting with prison authorities charles salvador attacked wakefield's governor mark dougherty the convict knocked the official to the ground yelling i will bite your [ __ ] nose off and gouge your eyes out representing himself at the trial salvador claimed he had intended to give mr dougherty a gentle bear hug and whisper in his ear but tripped or was tripped by someone and fell good excuse in november 2018 the jury found him not guilty wow apparently it was a good excuse not that it made any difference as mr salvador was already serving a life sentence among his many colorful statements during the trial salvador reassured the jury that he would never bite the governor's nose off because you see he's a vegetarian to prove this point he asked for a star witness to be summoned another wakefield convict robert maudsley known as hannibal the cannibal robert john maudsley entered wayfield in 1977 at the age of 24 he was to occupy a special cell designed especially for him a cell he has never left maudsley grew up in and around liverpool northern england enduring constant abuse from his parents at the age of eight his father kept him locked in a room for six months as he later declared my father only opened the door to come in to beat me four or six times a day he used to hit me with sticks or rods and he once busted a 22 air rifle over my back by 1974 robert maudsley had become a rent boy in london to help fund his drug habit one night one of his clients showed him pictures of the children that he had abused this infuriated robber who proceeded to garat stab and bludgeon his client to death declared unfit to stand trial mordsley was interned at broadmoor psychiatric hospital in berkshire southern england three years later robert committed his second murder with the help of an accomplice the two held hostage convicted pedophile david francis for nine hours francis suffered horrific torture before he was garrotted according to legend francis's head had been cracked open and a spoon had been stuck in his brains this detail convinced the press that maudsley had eaten his victims brains giving rise to the myth of his cannibalism according to the official report mordsley had fashioned a makeshift weapon out of a spoon and had jammed it into the victim's ear gruesome enough certainly but not an act of cannibalism robert was convicted of manslaughter and sent to wakefield prison within weeks of walking through the gates at lovelane he killed again on saturday morning he lured fellow convict saintly darwood into his cell he then used his signature garat to strangle him before smashing his head against the walls maudsley then walked into the cell of one bill roberts and stabbed him with a homemade knife after the two killings robert calmly walked into the water's office laid his knife on the desk and warned they will be too short when it comes to the next roll call since then prisoner 467637 has spent 23 hours out of every day in his cell in 1983 a special confinement cage was built for him one he has never left since the space measures 5.5 meters by 4.5 meters with large bulletproof windows on one side only pieces of furniture a cardboard table and chair a concrete bed and a toilet and sink which are bolted to the floor a team of prison officers is dedicated to looking after him six of them escort into the exercise yard having to walk through 17 locked steel doors if you combine these exceptional security measures with maudsley's false reputation as a brain eater you can understand why the murderer was dubbed hannibal the cannibal but even the fictional doctor lecter was allowed more company as he played power games with agent starling mordsley was so starved for interaction that in 2000 he begged for a pet budgie to be allowed into his cell the requests were denied to this day robert maudsley awaits the end of his days inside his glass cage at wakefield as he once wrote prison authorities seem as a problem their solution has been to put me in solitary confinement and throw away the key to bury me alive in a concrete coffin i'm left to stagnate vegetate and regress of course it's not up to us to decide whether complete isolation is the right punishment for a convicted murderer but i really hope you found today's video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching

Channel: Geographics

Views: 584,933

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Id: NBV8OaEovz8

Length: 22min 39sec (1359 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021