An inmate in Pentonville prison has been arrested following a stabbing that left one prisoner dead and two others in a critical condition. The Metropolitan police have begun a murder investigation into the incident which took place at the prison in north London on Tuesday afternoon.
Officers and paramedics found three prisoners with stab wounds, and one inmate, a man in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene. The two other men, aged 21 and 30, have been taken to hospital in a critical condition, the Met said. A 34-year-old man has been arrested and taken to a north London police station for questioning.
Homicide detectives are investigating. “Further inquiries into the incident continue,” a Met spokesman said. A prison service spokesman said: “Police are investigating an incident at HMP Pentonville this afternoon. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
Six inmates were killed in English and Welsh jails in 2015-16 – a record high. An inquiry by the prisons and probation ombudsman criticised the “wholly unacceptable level of violence” in prisons and also found a 38% rise in the number of assaults involving a blade or other weapon, to 4,000.
Pentonville is a category B Victorian prison that opened in 1842 and holds more than 1,200 men, despite a nominal capacity of 900. In a damning report published in June last year, Nick Hardwick, then chief inspector of prisons, said that conditions at the jail had deteriorated further since he questioned its future viability at his previous inspection.
Pentonville has more than 100 new prisoners a week and his report found it was “performing poorly” as a result of staff shortages, overcrowding and easy access to drugs.
Hardwick also found: “Most prisoners felt unsafe; levels of violence were much higher than in similar prisons, and had almost doubled since the last inspection.” Cells were filthy and some inmates were locked in them for as many as 23 hours a day, he added.
In August, police seized two drones loaded with drugs and mobile phones being flown towards Pentonville. The devices were discovered by officers investigating attempts to smuggle contraband into the prison.
