1990 Strangeways Prison riot newspaper also referenced in its own report an interview with former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf from earlier in the year where he described prisoners being kept in intolerable conditions–as bad as at the time of the riots. Woolf recommended prisons were kept out of politics. A riot involving several hundred prisoners that occurred at Birmingham Prison in December 2016 was described by prison affairs academic Alex Cavendish as "probably the most serious riot in a B category prison since Strangeways went up". The incident began after a set of keys was stolen from a prison officer while he was
1990 Strangeways Prison riot as practicable. On 4 April, Governor O'Friel spoke to the press for the first time, describing the riot as "an explosion of evil which was quite terrible to see". Also that day the Prison Officers Association claimed that Rule 43(a) prisoners were being treated in North Manchester General Hospital for castration wounds, which was repeated by sections of the press despite being categorically denied by the hospital's public relations officer and consultant-in-charge. 29 prisoners surrendered during the day leaving 26 prisoners inside the prison, 11 of whom had been identified by the Prison Service. Also that day a prison officer