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
2013 Palmasola prison riot of the "Chonchocorito" sector of the prison. The gang in cell block A had allegedly been extracting payments from their rivals in cell block B who grew sick of the extortion attempts and started the riot. The suspected ringleaders were convicted murderers and rapists. The archbishop of Santa Cruz, Sergio Gualberti, said the riot highlights "the overcrowding that exists within Palmasola and much of the country" due to "breach of duty" on the part of the judicial system causing long delays before trial. He said inmates are "practically forgotten" by the judicial system with no attempts at rehabilitation and criticized