BRITAIN: The family of an Asian teenager bludgeoned to death by his cellmate accused the prison service of "institutional murder" yesterday after an official report exposed a catalogue of failures.
Twenty individuals faced criticism for mistakes which led to the death of Zahid Mubarek, a 19-year-old first offender made to share a cell with known racist and skinhead Robert Stewart who had "R.I.P." tattooed on his forehead.
Inquiry chairman and High Court judge Mr Justice Keith outlined a devastating series of 186 failures that allowed the crime to take place in March 2000 at Feltham young offenders institution in west London.
He warned that ministers must find extra cash to cope with growing prison numbers and called for the prison service to eliminate forced cell-sharing.
The judge said the Home Office and prison service should introduce a new concept of "institutional religious intolerance" to help combat prejudice against Muslim inmates.
Mr Justice Keith said of the Mubarek family's "institutional murder" claims: "I understand where they are coming from. But I do not wish to apply any particular label to the list of systemic and individual failings I list in the report. The litany of failings and shortcomings which I have exposed I think speak for themselves." He went on: "At the heart of it all was a catastrophic breakdown in communications, not just between one prison and another but also within individual prisons themselves. Files on prisoners went missing. Vital information was not passed on, and when it was, it was often not acted on." The judge said there was a "bewildering catalogue of shortcomings" in Feltham.
He added that he had been "uncompromising" in naming those who had failed to do their duty properly, but insisted it was for the prison service to decide whether "heads should roll".
The two-year inquiry had heard prison officers played a game called "Gladiator" by putting racist inmates in cells with ethnic minority prisoners and placed bets on the outcome.
In the 700-page report, the chairman said there was a "real possibility" that a similar game did exist at Feltham in which prison officers placed unsuitable inmates together.