A documentary has lifted the lid on a culture of boozing, violence and racism at Strangeways prison in the years before the infamous riot of 1990.
Inmates said they were routinely called 'n***er', 'c**n' and 'P**i' by staff, some of whom openly wore National Front badges.
A senior prison officer at the time told the latest episode of ITV 1's Britain's Most Notorious Prisons there were 'good people and not so good people' but he had never witnessed any brutality.
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Prisoner turned campaigning journalist Eric Allison, who was handed a seven-year sentence for stealing £1m from Barclays bank, said, decades later, problems remain and he told the documentary the recent lockdowns had 'exacerbated' problems that already existed in the prison system. "I'm afraid society is going to pay a big price for what's happening, or not happening, in our prisons now," he said.
A former burglar and robber, who became The Guardian's prisons correspondent, said: "In prison, I've seen some pretty violent acts of inhumanity, if you like, from one person to another. But if I had to list the ten worst episodes that I've seen in prison, not one of them would have been committed by a prisoner. It would all have been by staff."
He described witnessing guards rubbing the face of one inmate, who had learning difficulties, into his own excrement, after he had soiled himself on dropping a tray of food onto the floor.
Former inmate Paul Downs, who was first sent to Strangeways in 1982, said: "The screws were brutal, hair triggered. They would literally jump all over you.
"You'd curl up in a ball on the floor and they'd kick you and then they'd stretch you out and they'd kick you again. Because they all wore Doc Martins. It was the screws' favourite footwear for caving your face in. It was just a violent, filthy, anything-goes regime "
But Peter Hancox, a former senior prison officer who worked at the jail between 1972 and 2006, told the programme: "It's like any organisation. It has good people and it has not so good people.
"I can honestly say, hand on heart, I have never seen any brutality by prison officers. What I have seen is where inmates have attacked and assaulted prison officers and they've had to respond and restrain in the best way we can."
Former inmate John Murray, who was first jailed at Strangeways in 1989 for robbery, said: "I'm not saying in there all screws were bad.
"But in there evil over-rode good every day.... Some prison officers in there didn't give a f***. They were drunk, openly. You could see they had big red faces. You could smell the drink on them."
The documentary said drinking was 'part of the culture', with staff boozing at lunchtimes and then again after work, including the then governor. The prison officers' club was adjacent to the jail.
"I inherited a situation where this was just a normal part of life," the governor's successor Brendan O'Friel told the programme. The drinking culture gave some prison officers 'a chance to be what they were - bullies', said Eric Allison.
Footage from inside the prison from 1980 showed one black inmate describing how he was called a 'c**n' and 'black boy', and that at dinner time a guard had said: "I'm getting my slaves their supper." A row of black inmates queuing for their dinner was called 'the gravy train'.
John Murray said: "Straight away in reception, screws were really racist towards me, saying 'what are you, a P***i or a n***er? I can see you're a different colour. What the f*** are you?' I was like, what the f***'s going on in here. You're quite startled at first.
"And then one of them punched me on the side of the head and my head rebounded off the side of the wall in the doorway. And then I just attacked him. I took a chunk out of his face. I bit into his face because I was fuming, raging with the way they spoke to me in reception."
The programme alleged some staff inside the prison were 'promoting' the far-right National Front, although this was said to be a minority. Some even wore National Front badges.
The then governor Mr O'Friel told the program there was an 'issue' of racism amongst some staff and that he 'swiftly' took action to stop staff wearing National Front badges although he conceded his action didn't address the 'underlying attitudes' of some of his guards.
Former prisoner Alan Lord, who was one of the leaders of the subsequent Strangeways riots, told the programme: "On the outside, you can walk away from it. But on the inside, you can't walk away from it.
"On a Monday you're called a black b*****d, a c**n or whatever, on a Tuesday you're thinking this is gonna come again, do I put up with it? Or do we nip it on the bud? I'm gonna nip it in the bud. Because they'd have gone 'the n*****'s a soft touch, go for him'. And I wasn't prepared to have that."
When he was first installed as Governor. Mr O'Friel said walked the landings, seeing cells designed for one housing three inmates, and he realised conditions were 'awful'.
After the devastating riot of 1990, £50m was spent on refurbishing the badly damaged jail, and it was viewed as a much fairer establishment.
"It was the first time in a long time I accepted my punishment and I haven't offended since," said Eric Allison, who died in November last year aged 79.
The most recent report from the Independent Monitoring board has found violence, self-harm and assaults on staff have all fallen recently. The government has said it is investing £4bn to create 20,000 new prison places across the country over the next few years, while £100m is being spent on improving security.
In December, Manchester City Council said it was urging the MoJ to bulldoze Strangeways and relocate it elsewhere, a suggestion which is resisted by the government.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: "We have worked hard to improve HMP Manchester and recent inspections show this is working, while across the country we are investing billions of pounds to create 20,000 modern and innovative prison places to rehabilitate more prisoners.
"During the pandemic, our decisive actions saved thousands of lives and helped to keep staff, prisoners and the wider community safe."
The latest episode of ITV's documentary can be viewed here.
Read more of today's top stories here
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