NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison)

Wormwood Scrubs is a British local prison, located on the south of Wormwood Scrubs in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was built in the 1880s. It currently houses 1167 prisoners in five wings. There have been numerous fights, disturbances and protest acts in the prison's history. In 1979 there was a rooftop protest over visiting rights staged by IRA prisoners. In the rioting, 60 inmates and several prison officers were injured. In 1982, an enquiry into the rioting blamed much of the difficulties on failings in the prison management. The prison govenor, John McCarthy, had quit before the rioting. He had described Wormwood Scrubs as a "penal dustbin" in a letter to the Times. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (480x640, 89 KB)Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (480x640, 89 KB)Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Wormwood Scrubs is a place in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. ... The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham is a west London borough. ... // Events and Trends Technology Development and commercial production of electric lighting Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA; more commonly referred to as the IRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the army or the Ra) is an Irish Republican paramilitary organization. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom. ...

In the 1990's, a police investigation into allegations of staff brutality at the prison resulted in the suspension of 27 prison officers and the convictions of six for assault (three of whom later won appeals against their convictions). The Prison Service paid over £30 million in out-of-court settlements with ex-prisoners who had alleged brutality. At the same time, David Ramsbotham, Chief Inspector of Prisons, delivered a damning report on the conditions and regime in which he gave the prison 12 months to improve or face closure. Since then, the Prison Service has poured resources and relocated its most talented governors to tackle the prison's problems. Subsequent inspections have generally been favourable, and the prison is now held to be one of the better local prisons in the UK.

In films set in Britain, when someone is shown being released from prison, the front entrance of Wormwood Scrubs is frequently chosen as a filming location. e.g.

The nearest tube station is East Acton. The Italian Job is a British comedy caper film, directed by Peter Collinson and written by Troy Kennedy Martin, who also penned episodes of the British TV series The Sweeney starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. ... Billy Liar (1959) is a novel by Keith Waterhouse that was later adapted into a play, film, musical and TV series. ... The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is an espionage novel by John le CarrÃ©, which tells the story of Alec Lemas, a British spy, who resigns from the Circus (as the British Secret Service is known in John le CarrÃ©s books) and defects to East Germany. ... Slight modifications to the famous London Underground roundel indicate the name of each station on platform and outdoor signs. ... East Acton is a London Underground station. ...

External links

Prison Service Information
Victorian London - Prisons and Penal System
George Blake escape
BBC News - Troubled history of the Scrubs
Amnesty International - Public statement on Wormwood Scrubs
The Home Office - HMP Wormwood Scrubs - Significant improvements under pressure

Categories: Prisons in London | London buildings and structures stubs | Prison stubs

Results from FactBites:

Scandal of society's misfits dumped in jail \| Society \| SocietyGuardian.co.uk (2471 words)
	It was several days before the prisoner spoke to the senior officer on the seg, whom he trusted, and explained what had happened: soon after he was locked in his cell on that first night, he said, a fl cat had slipped through his window and sat on the bed next to him.
	Three weeks later, the notes reach Wormwood Scrubs, detailing his long history of schizophrenia, but by that time, he has been taken back to court where he is given bail or a non-custodial sentence - nobody bothers to tell the prison - and he is back on the streets again.
	There is a young schizophrenic in the Scrubs at the moment: his father lives abroad; his mother has been evicted from her home and is sleeping rough somewhere; he ended up living on the streets, cold, hungry, hallucinating and finally trying to steal a woman's handbag.

Wormwood Scrubs at AllExperts (473 words)
	Wormwood Scrubs (known locally as The Scrubs) is an open space located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London.
	Historically, The Scrubs was recognised as the duelling ground of London; later it was used by Household Cavalry drill ground.
	At the western end is HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs, built between 1875 and 1891 by convict labour.

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