1990 Strangeways Prison riot administrative offices on the lower floor and the chapel on the upper floor. Remand prisoners were held in wings G, H, I and K of a separate prison, linked to the main prison through workshops and a kitchen. The Certified Normal Accommodation Figure for Strangeways, the number of prisoners the prison was designed to hold, was 970. The population of the prison had increased in the months before the riot, from 1,417 in January 1990 to a peak of 1,658 on 27 March. On 1 April, the prison contained 1,647 prisoners – about 925 convicted adult prisoners, 500 remand prisoners
1990 Strangeways Prison riot shone at the roof, and prison officers banged on their riot shields and shouted at the prisoners, including calling them "beasts". The rooftop protest was watched by a crowd of onlookers and supporters outside the prison. Various political groups also attended in support of the prisoners, including anarchist group Class War, the Revolutionary Communist Group, and the Prisoners' League Association. On 6 April Paul Taylor attempted to shout out the prisoners' demands to the crowd gathered below, but he was drowned out by police sirens. Taylor and other prisoners responded by unfurling a banner which read "We fight and stand