Life at HMP Birmingham: 'The prisoners are in control'
One prisoner tells Sky's Tom Parmenter that the prison is a "disgrace" after he was stabbed in the stomach and "battered".
Monday 20 August 2018 19:25, UK
It should be a pivotal moment in someone's life - finally walking out of prison and considering what freedom may bring.
For the latest inmates to leave HMP Birmingham it was just pure relief - checking out of Britain's worst jail means you might actually feel safer.
Some spoke to Sky News following the news that the Ministry of Justice is stepping in to take over the running of the prison after the government decided private contractor G4S could not cope.
One man in his 40s, who greeted his wife outside the gates after 11 months inside, said he had applied to be classed as a "vulnerable prisoner" so that he could be segregated away from the violence.
It meant he was placed on a sex offenders wing even though he wasn't a sex offender.
"I've been stabbed four times whilst being in there," he said.
"One scar there, one underneath my eye - stabbed in my stomach, battered. It's just because they can.
"It's full of mobile phones - it's a disgrace. Now the new side, I'll give the officers their due... it's fine, but A wing, B wing, C wing and K wing especially are f up.
"As soon as you walk on the wing, you'll get googled - now how the f*** are you getting googled in jail from a mobile phone anyway?
"I used to speak to my wife on an iPhone seven days a week on FaceTime.
"There's going to be another riot or something's going to happen. I could tell you a lot more... but the prisoners are in control of that jail."
One man in his late twenties, who had just been released following six weeks inside, said: "The drugs are taking over the prison to be honest, because this seems like the staff that were here before didn't care and just let people do what they wanted."
He described the mood among inmates as: "Fearful... there was a lot of people on my wing who just stayed behind their door 'cos they were scared to come out."
One family, who did not want to be fully identified due to fear of reprisals, said that their relative, known only as Mohammed, had been beaten twice over the weekend.
His partner Aisha told Sky News she was "traumatised" after being told about videos that appeared on Facebook showing him being assaulted in a cell by a group of other inmates.
"It is so upsetting and we have tried to get answers from the prison as to if he is safe, how bad was he hurt, has he been attacked again, and nobody will tell us anything.
"He's on remand so hasn't even been convicted," she said.
Mohammed's uncle, Mushtaq, said: "If they can't guarantee his safety we want him out. Who knows what will happen next and nobody will talk to us.
"We don't treat dogs in cages like this... this is supposed to be Britain, a safe system, but this is no better than the Third World."