Two inquiries will be held into the New Year's Day riot at the low-security Ford prison in southern England and prisoners involved could face charges, the government said on Sunday, according to Reuters. Rioting prisoners torched several buildings during 22 hours of mayhem at Ford men's prison near Arundel, West Sussex, on Saturday that only ended when scores of riot officers were brought in. The Ministry of Justice said there were no "significant injuries" during the riot that began around midnight on New Year's Eve after prison guards attempted to breathalyse inmates suspected of drinking smuggled-in alcohol. Prisons minister Crispin Blunt said after visiting the prison on Sunday that prisoners' communal facilities, including a gymnasium and mailroom, had been largely destroyed by fire. An accommodation building was also set ablaze. "There are now going to be two inquiries. There will be a Prison Service internal inquiry and there will be a number of issues which will have to be addressed and examined in the course of that," Blunt told reporters at the prison. "I also anticipate that there will be a police inquiry into the events which could then lead to criminal prosecutions," he said. The prison guards' union has said only a handful of staff were on duty at Ford at night to supervise hundreds of prisoners. The Prison Officers' Association said the riot highlighted the risks of government plans to slash spending on the justice system. But Blunt said it was unprecedented for a riot to break out at an "open prison" like Ford, where security measures are light and inmates are trusted to behave themselves. "We must learn the lessons to make sure it does not recur," he said. Michael Spurr, chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, said in a statement that staffing levels at the prison at the time the trouble began were "considered appropriate and usual for an open establishment such as Ford." A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said 23 prisoners suspected of involvement in the trouble had been transferred to other more secure prisons, a much lower figure than the 150 transfers officials had spoken of on Saturday. She said there had been a total of 487 prisoners at the jail and most were able to stay because the loss of living accommodation was slight. She could not say how much it would cost to repair the damage.
