This post was anonymously submitted to Autonomy News
We have been monitoring staff at HMP Bristol for a while now. The
following vehicle registrations belong to screws and prison officers (we
have seen people getting into them, and can confirm that they are
definitely not visitors, solicitors or doctors, but are definitely
screws and higher ranking officers).
XX08JMC, LO13DUE, KK57CTF, VK67FFV, A65AHZ, OU14UCT
Unfortunately these vehicles were absent from the car park on our chosen
day, but we did pay a home visit to 36 York Avenue, Ashley Down (another prison officer we have been monitoring). We left them a poster on their door:
“HMP Bristol Staff, we are watching you. This ones for all those who cannot act. The ones you incarcerate then target with your discrimination. We are watching you. Fire to the prisons!”
We visited these people and HMP Bristol because screws and prison staff there are racist. We are not saying the people we targetted are worse than the other people in the prison. But we hope our random act will show that just as the state watches us, we are watching you…. you and the whole rotten barrel in which you incarcerate people and make their lives a misery.
HMP Bristol has a long history of racist abuse towards prisoners. “Rotten” was a phrase used by someone inside HMP Bristol. Report over
the last few years have shown how at least 3 screws have denied people of colour basic “rights” like access to the yard and gym, and how the ‘Incentives and Earned Privilege’ scheme is totally open to abuse. It has been used specifically to discipline Asian prisoners for no reason other than the fact that they aren’t white.
All screws are scum. The ones we know of are the tip of the iceberg. There is no such thing as “good” or “bad’ in this context; they are all rotten to the core.
In 2020 a Somali Muslim man was attacked by a known racist inmate, and beaten so badly he was left disabled with brain damage… An “independent” report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and published recently– stated that “insufficient priority was given by the prison to addressing racism, inadequate risk assessments were carried out and the unit was poorly managed.” The report, made 54 findings and 31 recommendations, and called for additional scrutiny through an independent public hearing.
We do not care about their risk assessments. But recent knowledge of HMP Bristol has shown that the racist and fascist attitudes of the screws continues to be rife and unchecked, and doesn’t surpise us at all…. so we took matters into our own hands.
Racism is inherent in all aspects of the prison system, and it’s not just in adult jails. A report published by National Audit Office recently stated that 97% of young people in custody are “boys”; and 53% of young people in custody (ie. YOIs and “Secure Training Centres”; ie. youth prisons) are from “ethnic minority backgrounds”. As ever, the “minority” are the majority in custodial institutons and the prison industrial complex. The report references the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill as a reason for this. The PCSC Bill was only passed on the 28th of April; so expect these statistics to get even worse….. But as long as there is repression, we will be fighting.
Until all are free…. fuck HMP.
ASAB Cell
