1990 Strangeways Prison riot with many excerpts from the letters being appended to the finished report. The "Woolf Report" was published on 25 February 1991, and blamed the loss of control of the prison on the prison officers abandoning the gates outside the chapel, which "effectively handed the prison to the prisoners". Woolf described the conditions inside Strangeways in the months leading up to the riot as "intolerable", and viewed a "combination of errors" by staff and management at the prison and Prison Service as a central contributing factor to the riot. He also blamed the failure of successive governments to "provide the resources
Fremantle Prison riot spread into the rafters, and caused the roof to collapse. The prisoners surrounded their hostages, and in turn were besieged by an armed riot squad inside the prison, and the police riot encircled the prison. Skilled police negotiators communicated with the ring leaders, and by nightfall only five hostages remained. A sixth officer was to have been kept, but was released as he was seriously injured. Meanwhile, the fire brigade had trouble bringing the inferno in the main cell block under control. The prison's gate was too narrow for their trucks to pass, so they had to water the flames