Britain's Most Violent Inmates Set for US-Style Supermax Prisons

Britain's most dangerous extremist prisoners will be housed in new "supermax" units modelled on those used in US prisons, Justice Secretary David Lammy has announced.

Under the proposals, offenders would spend almost all their time in solitary confinement, eating, exercising and sleeping alone under an ultra-secure regime comparable to ADX Florence in Colorado — the prison known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies".

Mr Lammy told MPs he is also considering new legislation to prevent inmates in the units from using human rights laws to challenge the tougher conditions.

At present, extremist prisoners can contact up to 15 lawyers via in-cell phones and have used existing rules to flood prison authorities with hundreds of legal claims aimed at easing their restrictions.

The announcement follows allegations that Hashem Abedi, the Manchester Arena bomb plotter, carried out a "terrorist" attack on prison officers at a high-security jail using hot cooking oil and improvised weapons.

The measures were recommended by Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, who said the attack on three officers at HMP Frankland demonstrated an urgent need for reform.

Abedi has denied the charges.

Mr Hall added that the current system, which holds extremist inmates in three "separation centres" within high-security prisons, is fundamentally flawed.

The Johnson Partnership, Derby