Inmates at top-security prison 'expect gold-plated healthcare'

The annual report on HMP Full Sutton, near York, which houses some of the country's most dangerous and difficult criminals, has lifted the lid on one of the country's toughest jails.

Published by the Independent Monitoring Board, which monitors day-to-day life in the country's prisons, the report claims a bragging inmate led a riot in segregation cells after magistrates gave him a lenient sentence for assaulting a prison staff member.

In a separate incident, seven convicted terrorist prisoners received an official apology after being locked in isolation for 11 weeks over escape fears which turned out to be a hoax. A fake escape map to implicate the men had been planted in the prison library.

Describing the riot, when five convicts tried to destroy their cells last November, the report said, "The ringleader had just been charged in the local magistrates court with assaulting a member of the prison staff and was given a relatively lenient concurrent sentence.

"The prisoner obviously felt that he was invulnerable to a genuinely effective deterrent punishment and bragged as such.

"This appeared to encourage him in his rampage and incitement of other prisoners to damage their cells."

The report also revealed the prison's 600 inmates expected superior standards of healthcare – better than those received by the general public.

It claimed Full Sutton prisoners were "preoccupied with health and drug issues" and had "come to expect a particularly gold-plated standard of healthcare".

The report added, "In many cases, the standard of healthcare is probably above that which an individual could expect in the community."

Describing the failure to investigate the hoax escape plot which happened in March 2009, the watchdog said there had been an "unsatisfactory and probably unreasonable" delay because the matter was handed over to Special Branch at a time when there were "other serious terrorist incidents in the public domain".

Seven prisoners were sent to the jail segregation unit with loss of privileges but there was no clear-cut evidence about any plot and no charges were ever brought.

The board also concluded the escape map found in the prison library was a plant intended to implicate the seven prisoners and they had been given an apology.

The report did however praise the governor and his staff for running a well-managed prison.

It is the second time in recent years the prison, which has housed Charles Bronson, one of Britain's most violent and notorious criminals, has been in the headlines.

In 2005 it was revealed prisoners at the jail were organising "fight clubs" to settle debts between inmates, following an inspection overseen by the Chief Inspector of Prisons.

It claimed there was a culture of violence and intimidation at the prison and anti-bullying procedures remained weak because of insufficient closed circuit TV coverage.

Inspectors made a further 11 recommendations on safety to prevent the problems from escalating.

Following the newly published report, a Prison Service spokesman said: "We thank the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Full Sutton for their report which will be fully considered by Ministers. We will respond to the board in due course."