“We rioted because of the atrocious conditions: being locked up – three people, three strangers, to a cell designed for one – for 23 hours a day, having only a bucket for a toilet and being bullied and intimidated by prison officers. We hardly got any exercise or fresh air. If we were lucky, we got one shower and one pair of underpants to last a week. There was so much animosity building up. We hardly got any visits, roughly six a year for half an hour each, which was hard on family relations. People were held there from all over the country, many were too far from home for visits anyway. That was one of the main causes of discontent.
The riot took me by surprise. There were about 300 prisoners in the chapel. I was at the back listening to the chaplain talking about “blessings of the heart” when Paul Taylor stood up, walked up to the chaplain, took the microphone and said, “Fuck blessings of the heart, let’s take the prison”.
A bunch of prisoners stood up on the far side and started putting on masks. Another guy behind me ran forward with a couple of big sticks shouting, “Let’s take it!” My first thought was escape. I ran to the back where a prison warder stood, hesitating as to what to do. Before he could run I grabbed his keys and after a bit of a tug of war I got them off him.
I ran to another door that was being held shut by two other warders and I managed to shoulder it open. But I knew that my escape route was blocked so I went back into the chapel and handed the keys to the prisoners with the masks.
There was scaffolding in the middle of the prison. I used it to get onto the roof of A wing and made my way to the end. No sooner had I got there than the street below was full of press and photographers. Passers-by were stopping and waving up. When I looked across to the gatehouse, it was full of warders in riot gear, many were gesticulating and shouting, telling me they were going to break my arms and legs. I shouted back, “Who’s got your prison now?”
Once people calmed down, we knew the purpose of the riot was to demonstrate beyond the prison walls, what was happening within the prison system. After a few days of shouting down and struggling to be heard, I had the idea of getting a blackboard from one of the classrooms. I went back on the roof and started writing messages. When it was all over we managed to bring about some major changes [more family visits], but I think we’ve gone backwards over the past few years. I wouldn’t like to see another Strangeways, but if you treat people badly when they are locked up there’s going to be consequences.”
Alan Lord was speaking to Erwin James
Life in Strangeways – From Riot to Redemption, by Alan Lord and Anita Armstrong is published this month by John Blake, price £7.99
