 TLO what's poppin? Who's that? That's me We are on twitch we are not live, but you can leave a like comment subscribe turn on your post notification Bails, let's continue to grow the family from Chicago to the UK And if you don't know you should know I hit 10,000 followers on tic-tac I Know man, I always say celebrate the little the little things so I'm celebrating 10,000 not a little to me but celebrating Links down in the description for this page as well to live one live if you miss any Live broadcast they'll be on here and then we got the discord as well And we got patreon Patreon really be making it move man. Patreon keeps the dream alive you know Sansa if you want to Be a patreon member and show some type of love Monetarily, you know just be a member of patreon Simple Let's get into this though. HMP whitemore prison documentary this dropped 14 hours ago This is the first time I'm watching a documentary within like the first year of it being out At least let's get into this man Escape from prison you better hope you don't end up here in the belly of the base within the prison If you're ever sentenced to life and you're planning to escape from prison You better hope you don't end up here in the belly of the base within the prison system Welcome to Britain's Alcatraz It was designed to be impregnable. It was somewhere you'd never escape from here You'll be locked up with some of the most fearsome criminals in the prison system serial killers serial rapist contract killers drug lords the IRA you'll be rubbing shoulders with gangland bosses and armed robbers You're a different class of prisoner. You're kind of above the white polite and coming face to face with murderous Extremists the purpose of taking him hostage is to murder him probably by beheading you may even end up in the prison's impenetrable Special security unit is sterile. You're locked in at home. It's very very daunting You'll be kept in line by prison guy. You are Insiders Built on the 94 Built on the 94. We don't watch intros or previews For acre site of an old railway yard in the middle of the remote fence in Cambridgeshire This is HMP Whitemore One of Britain's newest high-security category a prisons. Oh, it's new It's a newer one So that's why they're so confident that nobody can bring out of it They always be confident till somebody actually does it a new breed of prison designed to contain a new breed of prisoner When you got told you were going to walk your heart would stop. It is extremely Imposing and oppressive and you can feel the whole of the prison system coming down round on you If it go them in the dungeon here in the belly of the base within the prison system Opened in 1991 at a cost of 58 million pounds Whitemore was seen as the long-awaited son 22 years ago some of y'all not even older than 22 Lution to modernizing a prison system struggling with a surge in prisoner escapes. It was designed to be impregnable. It was Some way you'd never escape from Whitemore is you could say is at the start of the new generation of high-security prisons This high-tech concrete fortress was built to replace Britain's crumbling Victorian prisons and Designed to contain the most challenging criminals of all The layout was given much more thought in terms of the space inside the prison and how Staff could control that space and maintain order. So the prison was constructed deliberately to cope with a cohort of very dangerous often very violent and manipulative prisoners for whom escape ought to be made impossible or as close to impossible as As as could be In 1987 the most audacious didn't want to use the word possible again. I heard it He was like or as close to impossible as possible As could be In 1987 the most audacious escape attempted prison history was made when a hijacked helicopter Was forced to land inside HMP gartery and two inmates were able to board and get away The MOJ vowed this could never happen again What you will see there that would probably contrast with some of our other prisons is first of all the physical Defenses high walls with escape proof beaks at the top you got razor wire You got fences that have got electric pros on there is a huge amount of club circuit television cameras Probably fair to say it is one of the most surveilled pieces of real estate in Western Europe Beyond white moors imposing walls razor wire and CCTV We're constructed for of the Securist Residential Wings in the prison I hear y'all the technology is there in the prison is the staff There though You can have all of this technology to keep people in but if the staff is incompetent People can escape and system Each wing has three caged off living areas called spurts. That's where you'll be spending most of your time The purpose was to break Because down into smaller manageable groups if you want member of staff in one more and you go down to the end of your spare You have to shout through the bars Go up go up and wave to the office and they'll see you and come and talk to you through the bars Unlike normal prisons where they just walk along the landings. They don't in one more There will be remote access that will be controlled by a control room far away from the the site of the wings And the reason for doing that is that parts of the prison could be completely sealed off So you restrict restrict restrict restrict? reduce movement reduce contact with other inmates very severe As well as the escape proof wings of white moor They had the control room and they got real comfortable was that this And they escaped in the van the work van or something. There's an even more impregnable prison block It was for category air inmates who posed the most serious security risks, and it was known as the SSU The special security unit Which was the prison within a prison so it's got its own wall its own fences and then outside of that It's another wall and another fences And then that's the mainstream white moor Whether you're heading to the wings or the SSU Travelling to white moor for the first time is a daunting experience With the helicopter above armed police would go around around about the wrong way and they'll motorways flashing people As you approach the prison, you just see that huge wall looming up in front The screws are aggressive there since you get any reception. They're just on it straight away There's three Versations waiting for me and a sea of prison officers. You just strip search straight away searches are very demeaning and I've had searches bring me to tears nearly Bollocks up cheap-parted show the cheeks of the ass But squatting with just two a million. Yeah, then they call you out one by one to that process your property Take your photograph give you an ID card And you take him to whichever way you're going to be given a cell given a mattress pillar Some bedding the strip search that the strip search was brought on the tears Like a pro state exam time six or something And banged up Lopped the big door slam behind you And that's you You're in the jungle It's your first night at Whitemore and you'll be bedding down with some of the most feared criminals in Britain It houses offenders of the worst kind who are not afraid to use violence for example, it was home to Kenneth Noy the M25 killer It was home to Paul Massey who was Mr. Big in Salford Where you had big smack robbers? Mickey Steele sx boys You also had the Dome robbers Billy Cochran and Aldo It has a group Billy Cochran You're okay. Somebody got that eye. You'll be all right and Aldo it has a group of gangsters, but it also has separately a substantial group of terrorists Including for example, Ushman Khan who died on London Bridge at the Fishmongers Hall attack Whitemore opened as a state-of-the-art flagship category a prison. It was designed to keep the public safer than ever But there were problems from the start There was a pressure on them to get it open quickly and so it wasn't as well staffed Nor as well plan Staff is going to be the outending Tell of everything And as it should have been I think the mistake they actually made was they went to the segregation or punishment units in the in the dispersal system and Empty them and moved all the occupants myself included to Whitemore In 1991 the first intake of some of the most dangerous and high-risk category a inmates were Transferred to Britain's newest prison I've come over at potatoes. I just escaped from mass security prison and a much stricter regime awaited the new arrivals You know, we were lined up in the reception area and told by a governor that what we'd experienced and only the dispersal prisons wasn't going to happen there and that they were in charge prison establishment and the Prison Officers Association saw the creation of Whitemore as an opportunity To reset the lines if you like and reestablish themselves as being the ones in total and absolute power But inmates like Paul believe that some of the new prison officers hadn't worked in a category a establishment Staff apart from the very senior staff They built a high tech security system. I mean a high tech secure prison And went in and hired game stop employees again like Little people had asked the totally inexperienced. They had no idea How Basically to run a maximum security prison The general relationship between the prisoners and the staff was one of mutual hostility Inevitably there was going to be problems there Unhappy with staff and the new restrictive conditions Whitemore's category 8 inmates quickly united and began a campaign for change Everybody refused to work and their response was to operate a total lockdown So whilst locked within ourselves, we would bang on our doors Destroy all the furniture in ourselves and then they knew that they couldn't regain control The balance of power as within three weeks shifted in our favor They had the prison open three weeks and it was Shifted the power was shifted All that top and they hired incompetent employees like I said at the beginning Britain's newest maximum security prison was on the brink of being taken over by its inmates drastic action was needed They brought in right squads and we reached individually taken from ourselves placed into vans and moved to other establishments or prisons Waking up in HMP Whitemore You'll have spent the night in a cell alongside some of the most disruptive and dangerous inmates in the prison I can imagine y'all put too many too many dangerous non-compliant people in one prison System One category a prisoner doing time here was Gary Johns Sentenced to life for stabbing a man to death at a party in 1993. I was inside 28 years. I was in Whitemore for two years For some prisoners in the 80s and 90s Escaping was a very real possibility And so the prison service came up with a plan to try to foil any more escape attempts in the prison service There's such a thing as the elist Which identifies prisoners who are in particular? Danger of trying to escape They are asked to wear specific clothing and are given enhanced security Whitemore just locked it off for me because I was a E-man and all I've come there with a red potato Just escaped from maximum security prison. This is the suit The start were good enough to let me keep it because they said I had it on more times than our dinner They say it's for security so they can pick you up on camera everywhere you go I was in one of these for nearly two years old enough If you're on the elist you would be under a stricter regime than the rest of the inmates With fewer privileges and more restrictions than other category a prisoners. It almost assumes a form of cycle This type of prison can't have nobody escaped enough. That's embarrassing They made it specifically for school torture Being a category E You're escorted by a prison officer Who all your movements are monitored in a little small book they holds I? Spent about two years on that Which was probably the worst two years of my entire sentence Yeah, they take all your clothes of a night. They take your knife full You've got no way of digging out even take the suit. They make you wear pajamas Being on the elist would even affect an inmates only chance at connecting with their old lives on the outside Every visit you come off a white moor your strip search Every visit every time you you have contact with the outside. Well your strip search As strict and oppressive as being on the elis was you were still housed on the open wings But being an e-man had nothing on the newest Stepdad he was in prison for eight years And I feel like every time we want to go visit him. He was strip searched a most secure unit ever built in the prison system white moors SSU The special secure unit within bite more had to ten cells It has since expanded To 30 Suppose you'd call it a prison inside a prison a prison within a prison The SSU house category a prisoners who were deemed an exceptional risk And who posed the danger to the public prison staff and even to other inmates The regime for prisoners in the SSU and you have to understand that the SSU was nicknamed the submarine by prisoners Because it was that oppressive. It is a very very small self-contained unit. It is actually like a Very miniature prison wing This is the gymnasium This is the hobble hobbies room TV room Association area and exercise yard I Separate to the rest of the jail with its own perimeter wall with its own fences its own cameras There wouldn't have been any moment where they weren't on camera or they weren't being physically monitored by officers so the the actual security probably from a Prisoner's point of view would have been absolutely oppressive But it wasn't just a vast amount of CCTV cameras that made the SSU so impregnable So to escape from the secure unit in the prison you would need to breach the first chain link fence Climb the inner wall breach the second Chain link fence and breach the outer wall a Consigual achievement and would require a great deal of ingenuity In the early 90s, there was one group Group of high-profile prisoners contained at Whitemore who posed a very real threat of attempting to escape They were sent straight to the SSU the Irish Republican Army Were Republicans in Northern Ireland who believed that the British were occupying Ulster This was long before 9-11 or 7-7 long before Islamic terrorism first established in 1919 to end British rule in Northern Ireland the IRA fought for independence and a unified Republic It weighs an increasingly violent campaign across Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland and other parts of the UK the British First ever machine gun Army retaliated and this period known as the Troubles lasted nearly 30 years until the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998 They classed themselves as prisoners of war so they behaved accordingly and under the prison under the Geneva Convention Their duty as prisoners of war is to escape. It's not you know, you don't ask that they have to escape and the prison system knows that in 1994 three years after Whitemore opened the SSU held a total of five men who'd been jailed as IRA terrorists Generally the thing that struck me most about the IRA was their discipline They would have a rank structure in jail just as they had a rank structure in the IRA as an entity in Northern Ireland The IRA tended to keep to themselves. They wouldn't really get involved in prison politics So like the everyday run in a wing they were kind of a loof if you know, I mean they would talk to you They weren't unfriendly and there was certainly a level of formality in the way they would deal with prison staff If they had any issues complaints They wouldn't deal with the landing officers that other prisoners did they would want to take it straight to a senior officer or straight to a wing governor, but they're good Behavior was masking a long-running secret plot that would why waste time with the employees You can go straight to the you know, I'm saying The owner rock white more to its core The very moment they arrived at white more they were already planning a way of trying to escape They befriended a fellow inmate another notorious escape artist called Andy Russell the man who'd hijacked the helicopter that landed inside HMP gar tree in 1987 and who was currently doing time for it Andy Russell, I know I've seen another one of these where the IRA escaped But they fully escaped who had already been involved in escapes You know, he's gonna be game fish so they've brought him along Obviously, he tried to escape from other prisons as well He was always trying it forced the pilot to land and picked up the two guys and and got him away That one of them was out for 18 months With Russell teamed up with the five men jailed as IRA terrorists They began to devise a plan They're trained to look at every aspect of a prison and use it to your advantage So these guys are plotting all the time. That's why they're in the unit But then they've realized in the unit they can suddenly manipulate people They schemed in secret smuggled in parts have built the necessary tools They'd need while successfully distracting the units prison guards who had no cause for concern You have in a way a rather strange standoff between prison officers who have become quite relaxed around their secure inmates and inmates who are all the time planning quietly subtly To stage an extraordinary prison break That's the difference You know I'm saying when they in jail and they're in prison They got all day to think about how to get out 24 hours seven days a week Prison guard after they eight hour shift they going home to relax eat Sunday roast You know I'm saying eat peas and mash bangers and mash they done What's up, and they only thinking about the job that eight hours that they there They bullied and intimidated them they started to hang sheets up in the association rooms and in the hobbies room To stop stuff seeing what was going on it and stuff would pop the heads in and they Wrangler stuff what you doing. This is nowhere. This is our area keep out They groomed them if you like and they would think that they weren't dangerous and they weren't any problem And they weren't going to be any problem Having taken care of the staff the six inmates were able to finish constructing the equipment needed for their unbelievable escape attempts volleyball poles and Then they've got the knuckles that you put on the end of Olympic bars the whole weights on they use them to brace the two poles together And rope through the center of it With little slats of wood through it and they used to climb up They use the poles to put the ladder up onto the wall. They went to elaborate lengths and they assembled an extraordinary amount of equipment The prisoners then managed to convince staff that they were being monitored too closely But in the unit what they had done was they had complained that the cameras were watching them all the time so that The screws went all right. We moved the camera over this side. We'll be facing that This one talking about incompetent workers I already knew that that was gonna be an issue with this whole this whole prison and look they in the SSU unit Talking about they getting too monitored too closely That's what the point of the unit is for y'all gonna move the cameras like y'all wow Yeah, that's how they managed to get out of the unit. I'm observed they even protested to offices about the stringent search methods So that visitors went unchecked the IRA prisoners were pressuring staff and were pressuring the the management of whitemore to Relax the regime to the point where even their visitors were coming in jail without getting proper searches and the IRA They took advantage of that they managed to get a firearm smuggled into the actual unit They got a blig I'm sorry. That's funny to me. I don't look they got a whole Pume pume into the SSU unit of the newest and most secure Prison in Europe Under the cover of darkness the gang cut through the first fence But as they encountered the second fence they set off the tremor alarms alerting staff And then they got to the wall and they managed to get over the wall one Think one prison officer was shot inside the prison a bullet reflected off the floor and hit him in the belly Didn't penetrate bruised him Once over the outer wall, they were on the run closely followed by the prison's guard dog patrol When they let them on the run and a check bruised him once over the You see bro right here. He almost broke his whole body the outer wall They were on the run closely followed by the prison's guard dog patrol when they let the dogs off And that's refined peppering to their faces Dog starts sniffing up the pepper. They've not chasing anything now They start attacking the screws because they confused with the officers fully aware that the escapees have firearms They follow at a distance as the men run towards a disused railway line Their idea was to disperse in the fence. So they'd be honored to find took the police helicopter and Some heat detection equipment to identify where they were After a two-hour search all six men were recaptured and the prison staff returned them to their cells in the SSU Embarrassing an escape of this caliber from an SSU is going to make people's heart beat very fast in the prison system Good I didn't of course some of them when they got back The day all that black eyes and bruises and such got good. I didn't get them climbing over the walls Did they I think they took the case to the European Court of Human Rights about Three or four years later it got there and they were rewarded payouts for the damage that had been done to them by the prison system White Maw's reputation as the escape-proof prison had been completely shattered The attempted escape was humiliating for the prison and the entire criminal justice system the next day home secretary Michael Howard called for an official inquiry Escape was well planned and well executed and it's it caused a lot of political embarrassment And around prisons people were cheering in their cells when they had to news on the radio The findings of the woodcock inquiry report were damning with staff and the prison surface being criticized throughout Of course, it's gonna always come down to staff. It don't matter what What what you got going on to keep prisoners in within that prison is the staff that's gonna make it possible Mentioned that the prison escaped attempt was always a disaster waiting to happen And that everything which could have gone wrong has in fact done so As a result of the escape and the inquiry into it the SSU at White Maw was Immediately closed down and a tidal wave of change swept over the whole prison service When that report came out the whole system changed it was unbelievable the whole system from Category 8 dispersal prisons to open prisons became locked down We just suffered for it after that from then on it was just suffering because of what I did and prison just became a lot harder Security was hastily tightened to previously unheard of levels based on 64 recommendations outlined in the report eventually HMP White Maw's SSU reopened stronger than ever Newly arriving inmates would find themselves confronted by a regime stricter than ever before And I think it's the fight in me that kept me going because a lot of people string themselves up Self-harm take drugs my mother took the battle to them White Maw was designed to be Britain's most escape-proof prison But after an audacious IRA getaway attempt its shattered reputation needed to be rebuilt The SSU a special security unit for the most dangerous and even really rebuilt out of there You supposed to be undefeated you out here one and all I mean all in one disruptive prisoners in the system Was reopened with even stricter routines and higher levels of security It instills fear It filters like a ripple system White Maw, White Maw Less than a year after the infamous escape attempt Category a inmate Kevin Lane arrived at White Maw's SSU from HMP Wormwood Scrubs He had a fearsome reputation for violent conduct. Actually everybody differently If you turn up there the bad rep like I did Lane is violent He will hit you if he says it's gonna hit you and if you ain't strong you won't be at the top of the chain It's the known contract if you assault a prison officer prison officers are then going to assault you There is no two ways about it. You are gonna get brutally beaten. Oh, yeah Known as lights outlaying as a teenager for his brutal fists the boxer an ex-bouncer Was handed a live sentence in 1995 having been convicted of shooting 44-year-old businessman Robert McGill Kevin Lane was it was was one of the good guys in White Maw actually. He was a nice fella. It was great fighter Kevin a great boxer Lane was accused of being a professional hitman who was paid up to 100,000 pounds for a contract hit on McGill But Lane denied the charge Insisting it was based on one piece of forensic evidence found in a car. He borrowed from a friend days before It was well known that Kevin didn't commit the crime. He was in for amongst prisoners everyone knew that I mean I think most of the screws know it as well when arriving at White Maw the last place You want to be heading to is it's reopened special security unit sterile you're locked in a tomb and metal table fixed to the floor Metal seat fixed to the floor stained the steel toilet. No seat is very very daunting New security measures in the SSU meant more frequent inmate checks by its officers. I was checked in myself every 20 minutes I Thought I had a bleeding tick 16 years later when I came off the K. I was forever doing that There's no bugger there at the door. That's because you're checking someone looks at you You look at them. Are they coming in on me? Why are they checking? That's what goes on torment terrible torment Are you to say I won't be beat? You are not gonna beat me I won't have it and I'm gonna keep going and I think of the fight in me that kept me going because a lot of people string Themself up Self-harm take drugs Mom was I took the battle to them and it kept me going Locked up in the SSU you were expected to conform at all times or suffer the consequences If you step out of line in the SSU you can expect violence and plenty of it the doors are Chub pat locks on and dead folks that have to take the padlock off Then go to the intercom in a control center and ask for that cell to be opened as the door opened I ran and met him and kicked the bottom of the shield down I had some boxes in the way so they couldn't get through with the shield They're hitting me with their truncheons and they're punching me the eyes. They couldn't see out of it It was split like a melon If you stepped out of line in the SSU you were taken to his isolation block known by inmates Sound like he started it to me You know no offense, you know, he said he will not be broken He was checking and he just wanted to get even or he just wanted to you know, feel like he had some type of power And you know you they walked in on you didn't kick the shield like it's up. You knew You knew You knew that there was a problem if you got out of line You just decided to you know, I'm saying play with that line As the box you're placed in there naked they might give you a bib and a brace and a blanket, but normally I've never had them Isolation in the unit is isolation. You are on your own. There was a parapet war All in a perspex window quite high up, of course you couldn't jump and touch it where That Psychologists would walk around that and Take notes on you About your behavior. You're laying there naked With people walking around looking at you like an animal There's no heating in there It's designed to make you feel cold and to make to make you feel vulnerable by having no clothes on you shivering along I wish it had been a bit warmer. I might have given something to write about While in isolation your routinely monitored day and night The flap will open you in bed at night and shine a torch in your face to see movement So you'll be working up all night It's no good. Imagine going through that week after week month after month Why do you need to wake him up? Because you're fucking awesome. That's why and you need jet lighting dynamite. You're going to sleep That was my approach If your behavior improved you'd be taken out of the box and placed back in the SSU and Eventually if you no longer pose the risk to staff you'd be allowed back onto a spur But under strict supervision To move me don't have to get permission from the control center Yes, it was okay to move lane. You can move them on the walkway or we can move them on the twos There would tell them how to be moved and there would be an association with me and members of staff if you're on the book So every time you move that book gets signed by what officer you've been moved at this time taken to that place So you're their responsibility because you're searched every two weeks and move sell every two weeks You never never get time to settle No matter how tight the security measures are at Whitemore Prisoners will always find ways to break the rules and there are a few Problems with prison most prisoners will all the scenery outside of prisons is always beautiful You know I'm saying good sunset Good grassy plain high nice little trees Peaceful look like you can fry like all in here Always find ways to break the rules and there are a few problems with prison more serious than the business of a legal contraband In most prisons in this country the biggest business going in the prison for prisoners is selling drugs Because there are so many addictive prisoners in in the system during the 90s. I think the proof that the drug of choice was cannabis In the afternoon you get unlocked after dinner Don't do me cleaning again when I finish I go get stoned afterwards it does kill time so people take it for that reason and Just to get away from the stress of life full stop behind bars Drugs were coming in through visits So female visitors would bring drugs in and then insert them into themselves and then during the process of the visit They would take the drugs out and then the prisoner would then give them a kid They put them in the mouth and have a kiss and the prisoner then would swallow the drugs and then Regurgitate it later on and wait for it to pass through the system. You can't search people's cavities. It's against It's against prison rules But it wasn't only from visitors the drugs like cannabis were readily available inside Whitemore Believe and there was some instance that took place that the majority of Smuggling was down to staff corruption. Staff were bringing stuff in for prisoners. If you approach them and it goes wrong You're in trouble so you wait for them to approach you And they do they wanted what will come to me time about his wife just divorced him and he needed money and So I won't I've obliged in my time at Whitemore a member of staff was As far as we know recruited by a drugs gang to join the prison service He joined the prison service and he was running drugs. He was being closely monitored Eventually was caught and and ended up with a custodial sentence a member of staff that was on nights And all of a sudden became quite cash rich. He was bringing stuff in and managing to get through the x-ray system By bringing in fresh food particularly fish in tin foil and he was hiding drugs inside tin foil Not long after opening By bringing fresh food in particularly fit. What exactly was he gonna do and at the job with an uncooked fish? Come on now Whitemore succeeded in cutting down cannabis use with the introduction of mandatory drug testing Since cannabis could remain in the body for up to a month or longer inmates were quick to look for alternatives Which left less of a trace? You know the very thing that was supposedly intended to stop the use of drugs in prison particularly cannabis encourage the use Of even worse drugs like heroin People did want to get the nickings for failing for cannabis and most people started smoking heroin They created their own area in problem in prison. We've ever used a different monster Harder to detect literally a gateway drug in prison was we Hanoi knew spread across the prison and so did its associated problems So if those addicted to drugs like heroin inevitably found themselves in debt Then those enforcing that they would use violence Chaos chaos more violence You've you ain't got everything you're in trouble. You know, you're physically rattling if you ain't got a joint All right, you'll be pissed off, but you know, I mean you ain't gonna be running around robbing people for a while all that But we've ever used a different monster. These are people that have just got no No boundaries no filters. These are people that Will literally Break every taboo in the prisoners handbook if you say don't I'll give you two bags of heroin if you go over and stick a knife in that Geysers neck they will do it believe me. I've seen it done loads of times start committing sexual favours for people So you get a habit you can't pay Getting you suck my cock bend over talking shaggy There's blood there's that I mean that's that's That's how I be in the real world Attics be doing whatever they can for they fix They're saying no matter where you at Is this allegedly war is that's it There's people in prison system doing that right now And where there are drugs in the prison system there are drug dealers Running most of the illegal activity behind bars in the 90s was a group of organized criminals Who masterminded illicit operations on the inside in the same way they ruled the roost on the outside So that they they rule by fear and often they've got gravity tasks. There's an aura about them They're extremely confident and extremely loud. They are very very very dangerous and they are feared Possibly not at whitemore were more feared than Manchester's Mr. Big Ganglambos Paul Massey Sulford was seen by many as a Robin Hood type figure the reality was he was an extremely violent person Away from the SSU Even though you were still banged up life on the wings of whitemore meant sticking to a normal prison routine Half six seven in the morning you'd hear the screws come up at a wing It's a kind of a familiar sound you hear a lot of gates going a lot of keys rattling and then sure enough around about 815 they come on to the spurs and unlock everybody you go to work I was always housed on the wing and those people who haven't got jobs are locked in their cells Well, I was a cleaner so my morning was we get up after his early morning gym we go to him come back have a shower Do me cleaning you're looking about 15 steps long is what the the spur was I'd have to hoover that that'd be my job and someone else's job would be to clean the kitchen My job was to clean the ground floor emcee the bins and clean the showers Everyone at their own job cleaning the showers job. That sucks a bunch of men can't get no It's probably DNA all in there When the cleaners there's about six cleaners to each spur you'd be locked up them for an hour and a half You were let out a half past one and the same routine again, but still suppressed contained You definitely know you're contained in jail. Blimey And contained on the open wings of whitemore are some of the country's most violent men Inside for running organized crime networks in Britain and around the world They were Chinese guys there that have come as part of triads and we've got the ardy gangsters from London We've got the the boss boys from South Shields Northern gangsters we got gangsters and Ganglars from Manchester from Liverpool Michael Steele was one of a new breed of British criminals in the 1990s modern gangsters more ambitious more ruthless and more reckless than ever before Along with Jack Worms the pair committed possibly the biggest gangland retribution hit in British criminal history The assassination of the Essex boys. I can remember it vividly. This is Britain You find three men down a track in Essex literally assassinated They were Patrick Tate the leader Tony Tucker and Craig Rolf It remains one we did several Documentaries on this Part of British criminal folklore that's very hard to ignore But maybe the most reputed of the new breed of British gangsters to have spent time in whitemore was Manchester's Mr. Big the seemingly untouchable brutal gangland boss Paul Massey in Salford was seen by many as A Robin Hood type figure who's involved in protection rackets His minions with Rob Warez is the reality was he was an extremely violent person who Hurt a lot of people and people went to Paul because I needed him It's a John Wayne of the world. I love John Wayne was looking after the underdog if there was a conflict between two people poor trancy Try and resolve it for the better of everybody No, and if someone was wrong, it's how you roll like me Yeah, you don't flare it up the police Didn't see Massey as Robin Hood. You know, they saw him more of a Robin so-and-so and So they put a lot of time and effort into Bringing him to justice, but nobody would give evidence against him Massey had built up a hugely lucrative business from running protection rackets and selling drugs in nights Clubs, but one night he was arrested on his own patch for attempted murder and sentenced to 14 years inside The power went to his head and he thought he was invincible Massey's going from club to club around Manchester And he's showing off throwing bottles at dormant and calling girls over and got into an altercation with some lads who were on a stag night from Leeds and Paul Stabbed one of the guys in his inner thigh He nearly bled to death Massey entered white moor's wings a high profile well-known face with a reputation that preceded him ASS I wrote it down, but I spilled it all Living having that sort of status is a big help because you have access To people and things that that other people won't have access to you might say I asked me daughter's birthday. Could you Send it by a three thousand cat pan car and I'll pay you when I get out You're a different class of prisoner. You're kind of above the high polo if you like I know this sounds all trying Crap, but that's how it is in there Paul didn't have protection what Paul had was Notority and he had respect and God he had my respect There's a lot of old-school school criminals in the prison system. So you'd be welcomed or they'd know your case Or they'd know about it or to know someone to do you Gangsters they've got large networks of people and they've got large amounts of Power and the ability to put pressure on people and often they've got gravity task There's an aura about them. They're extremely confident and extremely loud and they tend to draw attention Into themselves and they attract people in and they are feared they they they are very very very dangerous And they wouldn't think twice about taking you down a back alley and shooting you in the back of their head Even though they were banged up these rich and powerful criminals like to keep their empires on the outside running That applied to Paul Massey too. I mean by the very net definition of the word gangster You've got a gang outside who will be handling your business and normally its business as usual if you're Say taking protection money off a load of different people when you go in general that doesn't stop He needs people that he can trust They keep his businesses going that are gonna keep his family In their lifestyle that they've become accustomed to in that respect. They're no difference to me and you And if a gangsters illegal business was still running on the outside It would inevitably find its way inside as well. The only way you're gonna be able to run a business in a high-security prison Is really through your visitors? It's a past instructions through your visitors and receive Updates and briefings talking in code What suppose cockney rhyming slang started off as a criminal code you run in jail The way you run outside if you want something done you hire someone to do it or you pay someone to do it Or you you know if it's personal you do it yourself But there's always plenty of willing hands to do these things For gangsters that need a business of a violent nature to be dealt with inside the prison The dirty work was contracted out to other willing inmates So a lot of guys will hire themselves out as hitmen at two gangsters to main gangsters They're actually called runners Imprisoned parlance like they might say I'll pull my she's got a couple of runners over there I'll get one of them to come over and a runner is somebody Who's like hangs around the gangsters is accepted by the gangsters, but does all their medial work. So In Chicago we call them crash dummies Y'all call them runners. We call them crash dummies. Just crash out for no reason Just because you want a cup of tea made Johnny put a tea on or you know go over to be win Go out and exercise until so-and-so. I'm being blah blah blah. I used to do things what I'm not really proud of there's been times when people have had issues with other people and I've resolved them in good ways and in bad ways and Got paid and now talking about it seems alien because it's like I'm a different person now and then when I really look back into the archives, I did some some real dirt and Yeah, that's that's how that place can get you a white moor Massey would sometimes pay runners with drugs to lay down his own brand of justice When he felt it was needed Paul Massey heard there was someone on my spur Who had I think he'd rape a woman and beat her with a table leg in Manchester and Because that was his manner. He felt he had to do something about it as you do and he couldn't get on to our spur So you put a contract down the guy and they went and they proper Really proper her this geezer Massey paid the inmates two bags of heroin and was never charged for the contract hit But it was a completely different matter for his two runners I mean he could do anything to pull Massey. They weren't gonna take them to court for that He was a high-risk category. Yeah, you know what I mean what they're gonna put on an escort and everything to take him down They're called because he's not accomplice in something. It's not happening and then unfortunately when they were nicked for attempted murder on this guy They grasp all messy up grass is a cockney wyme is slain From grass hopper meaning copper So in the old days when a copper is approaching they say there's a grass coming Grasses are very useful to the authorities and they're hated by prisoners obviously because they're a traitor to their own kind Which is why they're dealt with so badly in jail Being a known grass inside would leave you just as vulnerable to inmate attacks as a pedophile or a rapist Definitely a grass down there worse inside From anywhere, but it's gonna come That's a bad scenario Because you're gonna wake up every day with that on your mind Where it's gonna come from that doesn't you mad? Massey avoided punishment on the inside and was soon released in 2007 He would later find himself becoming the target and victim of the new generation of younger gangsters With a very different code Always old-school These young kids in Salford weren't interested in fighting if you annoyed them if you you know did the wrong thing They'd shoot you simple as with Massey trying to reinstate his authority as mr. Big in the Manchester underworld He ordered a hit on a man named Mark Fellows for selling drugs on his patch Somebody went to mark fellas his door with a gun to shoot him Because it was alleged he was selling drugs on poor Massey's patch and the guy pulled a gun at a mark store step He didn't fire mark shut the door After discovering that it was Massey behind his attempt at slaying Mark Fellows decided to retaliate with his own assassination attempt Mark's panicking thinking this guy's gonna kill me And do this to me so he stupidly thinks Are getting first Paul's come on parks his car mark sees him Runs across the road Open fires with a machine gun He didn't believe he had a choice He was either him dying or poor Massey dying Him go to a grave or him go to prison for the rest of his life So he chose the latter Fellows would later find himself in white moor sentenced to a whole life term as a marked man He encountered another gangster this time from Liverpool and Knowlesley called Kieran Blair And not long after Fellows arrived in white moor. He's attacked by Blair who slashes him across the face In revenge supposedly for the killing Paul Massey slashed him I hope they do it again looking down in violence But they've took away a man from his children So there are obviously people loyal to Paul who have issues with mark But there'd be a lot of people in the system that had a lot of respect for Paul And liked him a lot and from his area That's where that fellow have problems HMP white moor is teaming with notorious gangsters But they're joined by another group of british criminals banged up for life armed robbers I had two trials at the albany the first trial they couldn't agree uh second trial found me guilty within 15 minutes And I was sentenced to eight life sentences On the wings of white moor you'll be living amongst gangsters murderers drug addicts and armed robbers And you'll quickly get to know your place In every form of life there's an hierarchy Frieza's no different Armed robbery is considered the sort of creme de la creme of crime You're doing you're risking big stakes for big money. It's as simple as that They took away the crime They took away the crime They took away the crime They took away the crime They took away the crime They tended to be A very very close in its circle almost like a family White moor has locked up men who've been involved in high-profile robberies Including two of the millennium dome robbers Billy Cochrum and Aldo Chirochi The gang broke through the perimeter fence of the complex in a jcb digger Drove it right up to the side of the dome itself and smashed through a section of wall made of glass and metal They were like the james bonds of the robbery world if you like they had the ideas And tried to get away with the biggest jewel robbery that had ever been known But the police I still haven't been able to watch this The millennium dome heist I think I have ones With rose kimp cut where rose kimp covered it And I think that's the one that i'm probably gonna watch finally It's probably sunday i'm gonna watch that it's gonna be out sunday Had been tipped off and we're waiting for the gang More than a hundred officers many of them armed laid the trap Convictions for armed robbery Carried some of the heaviest sentences in the criminal justice system I committed my first crimes back in the 1970s as juvenile and I became A career criminal Smith had spent years in and out of prison for armed robbery and firearms offences But there was one conviction which would culminate in him receiving an eye-watering sentence I'd always served the previous sentence a 19 year sentence and I got done for a A set of robberies called the laughing bank robbers robberies And they were called that because we robbed the bank on christmas even more sent hats over our scheme masks So I was the only one arrested out the whole gang and I was put in jail The evidence piled up against me. They had loads of photographs Of me in a ski mask Um, so you couldn't tell it was me, but they had one of my face I had two trials at the albany the first trial they couldn't agree Uh second trial found me guilty within 15 minutes and I was sentenced to eight life sentences smith received This is for robberies is crazy Received his huge sentence in 1998 at the age of 38 as part of the government's two strike life act policy implemented in 1997 All of your previous convictions were classed as one strike And uh, if you committed another crime of violence or robbery then that was your two strike And you would automatically get a life sentence. So I was given eight Oh, that's not even three strikes. They're two striking you Well, what game they playing that ain't even fair Well, I mean If we measured it in gaming, but that's tough life sentences You would automatically get a life sentence. So I was given eight life sentences um eight lots of 10 years imprisonment for um Possession of firearms concurrent. I said to my qc Do you think I'll ever get out of this sentence? And he said you've got to get used to it This is your life now Even though smith was a fearsome criminal He was also a devoted family man with a wife and children All of which he would have to leave behind You are always expected every time you go to prison for your relationship to break up Robert De Niro said perfectly in heat in the film heat If you're not ready to drop everything at a moment's notice and just piss off. Don't be a criminal I have to be honest. I did enjoy committing armed robberies. It was it was a buzz That's probably why I never really got involved in class a drugs because I could never get the same height Inevitably when you're staring down the barrel of eight life sentences, the future can look bleak from inside Prisons are designed to break you mentally Physically and spiritually I didn't have visits in prison for years because I couldn't stand having visits from people I know And then going back to a prison cell. So I cut off everybody in the outside and pretend that they didn't exist And that's what you've got to do in prisons Being accepted in prison by your own kind is paramount to serving a long stint inside There was a lot of guys who were serious professional criminals Um, who were in whitemore who were armed robbers and yeah What you do when you're in that that kind of uh, that kind of companies you'll gravitate towards each other robbers That's the thing because it's like, uh, it's like an eight a z of information Prison like you put robbers or robbers. They're just gonna learn from each other's mistake and evolve They really tend to talk about the crimes they've committed and the crimes they're gonna commit and that's what we did if no one knows you Then what we say in prison is there's a smell about him. That means nobody knows who he is nobody knows where he's been So when you're coming into a category prison if you don't know anybody In this category prison you become a suspect Whether you're a known or unknown entity in a place like whitemore Being locked up 24 seven with the prison's most serious criminals Can sometimes take a turn for the worst You're pushed into gathering these small spaces seeing the same people every day And gossip and backbiting is a real problem because it only takes someone To say that you've informed or that you're dodgy and that gets the whole wing on it and next thing You know you're being beaten to death in yourself Gossip on the wings can lead to problems within me. It's mental health There's a lot of paranoia and there's a lot of Really deep thinking about the situation you're in. I was a paranoid wreck for about five or six years I became so paranoid When I heard someone talking out the window to turn my radio off and listen to hear what they were saying To make sure it wasn't about me. Someone might not say good morning Turn my radio off and listen to hear what they were saying to make sure I ain't gonna lie. He got a w snack selection back here He got digestives He got the biggest bag of tepid tea I've ever seen. I thought this was a bag of dog food. This is tepid tea right here That's tough What else you got? Uh sardines two bowls Sure, it wasn't about me Someone might not say good morning to you and you might go back to yourself and I've done it And think why didn't he say good morning to me? I'm gonna have to take him out before he gets me One guaranteed way of sparking the rumour mill into high alert was the arrival of a priest on the wings I was coming back from tea one night in the uplake with a big jewellery mate of mine bud We see a a priest down the end of the landing and I went more someone's in for some bad news and he went yeah And then when I got further up I realised he was waiting for me And it turned out my 19 year old son died outside in mysterious circumstances And um that's gotta break you as a man. Your your family members get to dying and you can't do nothing I I was devastated you are in a An environment where everything is expedited Magnified Emotions are magnified It's all pressure pressure pressure and no Wasn't in a good place Inmates were allowed to attend relatives funerals outside of the prison and under heavy guard One of the security staff I'd known him quite a while. I was um I broke his mate's jaw when we were in Rochester ball still many years ago And now he was like high up in security and why he didn't like me. I didn't like him And what they done basically I went in I had to go and make an application to speak to the governor to ask for to be allowed to go to my son's funeral And uh, they made me beg and in the end they said no and so quaked the light in it Noel was going to do something extremely serious. Someone was going to get severely stabbed Maybe kevin lane came to me and he went look He said they don't have to let you go to the funeral. He said but I think they have to let you take you to the chapel arrest So I went and see a screw and he said yeah, they do Fellow prisoners were outraged with the decision not to let Noel attend his son's funeral There was a lot of discussions about Kicking off wrecking the wing and stuff like that. So people's emotions are running very high Especially when you see your power in the cell breaking his heart they come up with a plan to Pour wash it up liquid over the floor ring the right bells and when the screws come in they were going to attack them And the night before this I just thought no, I don't want that to be a testimony of my son And I went on and said no don't do it. Don't do it The next morning They had been handcuffed with six screws Down to south london to the chapel arrest and I managed to see my son in his coffin It's just a horrible time and I'm thinking It's this really what I've aspired to, you know, I'm in The most top security prison in europe surrounded by All the faces and gangsters who all know me and and this is the rest of my life. I'm never getting out And I had to have a serious think about that and and for months I've grieved and I thought about it And eventually I went to him and I said look I'll need to get some sort of closure on this The career criminal had found a tragic and heartbreaking reason to reform and was transferred to hmp grendan Grendan prison was an experiment by the prison service To offer a therapeutic community within a prison environment. It was very brave It was an idea that if you had difficult violent men and you subjected them to the right kind of psychotherapy They could be cured. There was a lot of tears and pain in grendan I mean we had we used to do this thing called psychodrama once a week You know five or six guys who were decked out scenes from their lives and the other people played a part and I dealt with my son's passing Really with those guys there. They were like brothers to me. I opened up to them I abandoned my family. I've really When I think about it now I just take myself for it, you know, I mean I had to work on it in therapy and I feel Loves a guilt over Joe. I wasn't I wasn't there for him. If I'd have been a normal father I'd have been there, you know, I mean if I'd have been a normal geezer Then I wouldn't be sitting in the top security prison with eight life sentence wrap around me Asked when me someone's outside diet. I regret nearly everything and when I look at Pictures of myself when I was younger I just So want to go back there and and and you know give me a good shake up and tell me not to do the things that I've done Because it was a waste of life. It really was it really was and if I could go back I'd change at all Smith was eventually released from prison in 2010 and by this time Events in Britain would herald the arrival of a new group of prisoners onto white moor's wings It's become one of the places where the terrorist prisoners are sent Most regularly with one inmate that would later bring carnage to the streets of london He was a bomb white As Britain moved into the 21st century its prison population would radically change once more And nowhere more so than a hmp white moor As it's developed over the years it's become one of the places where terrorist prisoners are sent most regularly White moor is constantly evolving and those rather 90s concepts Of gangsters is ebbing away to be replaced by a different form of criminal The influx of terrorists to white moor from the early 2000s was a global sign of the times And a new approach was needed to combat this extremism The staff feared they were losing control because of the influence of islamist extremism and people who are promoting a terrorist ideology freely on the wings and in response to that uh, the University of cambridge was commissioned to do some research Since then de radicalization programs have been introduced at white moor for those convicted of extremism offences They provide intensive mentoring Theological and ideological advice and are designed to help inmates to disengage from terrorism And does that work the healthy identity intervention or hii Is probably the main stay of the prison services offending behavior intervention for violent extremists It's an untested program. It hasn't been properly accredited And what i've heard from people who've been in the program and this is you know supported by other evidence That's in the media is that these programs are extremely easy to game. In other words, it's very easy to pass the program That's what I see. That's the exact thing and what I thought when I heard it because he was like Like these are extremists Going into this program. I'm just making trying to make this self look not better Like okay, cool. Let me go in this program. They're gonna let me out earlier or something. They're gonna ease up on me Like I would assume that this is like Very easy to game Or they use it as a just a ploy Just they cap they cap they wait through it man just to get out In 2010 19 year old busman calm was arrested for 19 Jesus I wonder about 47 erished offensives including conspiracy to murder From 2012 he attended white moors deradicalization program was man khan Was born in stoke on Trent At the son of Pakistani immigrants he attended school in britain and then seemed to go to parkistan What exactly happened to us man khan in parkistan is still a matter of Conjecture Certainly he developed a reputation for being a radical For being a proto terrorist Something which he fundamentally denied khan completed his course and his sentence at white moor and was eligible for release What happens is you go through the program and you know, you're able to then progress Despite the fact that you might still completely retain Your terrorist affiliations and the program hasn't worked. This man khan was saying and doing the right things And he was talking the talk Cap in his way through that were but he was not walking the walk at all He was a bomb waiting to go off. I thought he was about to say quite literally Kahn was released in december 2018. I don't know if you've been eight years of a 16 year sentence And just one year later he would go on to course carnage on the streets of london In fairness to the prison the prison had no control over him being released at the time The rules stated that he was at the automatic release point. Um from his from his sentence in november 2019 khan attended an event in london which was celebrating the five-year anniversary of learning together The study course established in british prisons like whitemore which brought together offenders and those in higher education took part sat there quietly and then proceeded to stab to death A young man and a young woman who were attending the conference and injure three others There's a perversity to this at a celebratory event For uh graduates of the learning together program He used that as his stage for some of the graduates of the learning together program He used that as his stage for some of the most horrendous terrorist violence that we have seen His victims were 23 year old saskia jones and jack merit 25 Who were university students and had been innocently sitting close to kahn And usman kahn was shot to death by the armed city of london police That afternoon on london bridge What we saw was a catastrophic system failure that meant that key information was lost Opportunities were missed in order to detect and stop his descendant to murderous violence I would have shut that that that whatever that course was down in september 2020 Two inmates brustums earmani and bass hawkton Went on trial for attacking a prison guard in whitemore earlier that year Footage of the incident was used as evidence in court One a convicted terrorist and another a person that he had radicalized Attacked and very nearly murdered a prison officer. Are these things linked? Yes, of course they are There's absolutely no title Evidence in court I ain't gonna try to say nothing, but man a lot. I feel like there's a lot wrong with this situation right here First of all, they have him surrounded already whitemore earlier that year. He's surrounded Ones in front ones in the back If they chose to do something right now, you're out of there Back is turned to buddy by here footage of the incident was used Back is turned to both of them as evidence in court Let them both get behind him not even checking his whereabouts like I would have told them yo stand somewhere like like One a convicted terrorist and another a person's linked. Yes, of course they are There's absolutely no doubt in my mind The purpose of doing so was to take him hostage and the purpose of taking him hostage was to murder him Probably by beheading The prison CCTV footage was used to convict the men and both inmates were sentenced to life imprisonment for attempted murder Professor Ian Atchison led an independent inquiry into Islamist extremism at whitemore He made recommendations to the government on how terrorists should be contained One of the key recommendations that I made was the creation of separation centers Small units which I believe needed to be created in order to incapacitate a small number of highly subversive and ideologically bulletproof Offenders Islamist extremists in the main if you put 20 burglars in one wing They don't talk to each other at burglars and reinforce all the stereotypes they got about burglars So I think they should be treated as any other prisoner dispersed over the system the way normal prisoners are What you have to do is make sure these people cannot continue to be able to Try to convert others to the cause of terrorism and get the right people around individual offenders who are You know assessed to be extremely dangerous and you manage those people from the You know the day they are convicted To the day that they stop being supervised in the community and you're potentially beyond if needs be I think that is the way forward Since it's opening in 1991 HMP whitemore has been an ever-changing entity With a chequered history to prove it And as the new waves of prisoners arrive And the challenges they bring in gulf whitemore spurs and wings The inmates of older leave in the claustrophobic confines of it's now 30 year old walls behind them Actually leaving prison is probably one of the best feelings in the world Yeah, I would assume, I would assume Stepping down saw that guy TLL leave a like comment subscribe turn on the post notification bells This prison is wild I'm down