A second inmate at Pentonville prison has been arrested after a knife attack in the jail that left one prisoner dead and two others in a critical condition.
The 26-year-old suspect was taken to a north London police station, where a 34-year-old was already being held for questioning by detectives from the Metropolitan police’s homicide and major crime command, police said.
Officers and paramedics were called to the prison at 3.30pm on Tuesday, where three men had suffered stab wounds. At 4.25pm, one inmate, in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The two other victims, aged 21 and 30, remained in critical condition in an east London hospital.
Police yesterday said they were in the process of informing the next of kin of the dead man, who had not yet been formally identified. “Further inquiries into the incident continue,” the Met said in a statement. Visitors queuing to see loved ones inside the prison spoke of their safety concerns. A woman visiting her 21-year-old son initially feared he could have been the victim. She said: “My son is 21, I haven’t felt the same since I heard the news.
“As a mother everyone tells you at least you know where he is and he is safe – but actually he’s not safe, is he?
“No matter their age or what they have done, no one deserves to die in prison. It is supposed to be a place of safety.”
Another woman said: “It shouldn’t be allowed to happen anywhere, let alone in prison. It’s obviously not safe in there.”
The Prison Governors Association (PGA) yesterday renewed calls for a public inquiry into the state of jails in England and Wales. The union said government cuts to staff and resources meant the incident at Pentonville was “no massive surprise”.
Recent statistics published by the ministry of justice showed there were 100 apparently self-inflicted deaths in the year to March, the highest for more than a decade. There were more than 20,000 assaults – 2,813 deemed “serious” – in the 12 months to December, a rise of 27% year-on-year, and nearly 5,000 attacks on staff, a jump of more than a third compared with 2014.
John Attard, national policy officer at the PGA, said: “It is no secret that we have had concerns about cuts and resources over the last four years. The ministry of justice statistics paint a very grim picture indeed.”
Referring to Tuesday afternoon’s incident as a “tragedy”, he said: “The prison service paid staff to leave. The years of experience, the mentoring, the sharing of their experiences – a lot of that has been lost, and it is showing. It’s why we need an inquiry into this.”
Speaking outside the prison gates, Attard added: “We called for an independent public inquiry a week ago.  The reduction in staffing is a key factor, there’s no doubt about that, but synthetic drugs also had some part in that.”