Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990                   TAG: 9004260248
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND                                LENGTH: Short

25-DAY PRISON SIEGE FINALLY ENDS IN BRITAIN

Prisoners had taken over the grim, overcrowded Victorian prison in a riot that began April 1 during Sunday chapel services. About 300 prisoners overwhelmed guards, took the jail keys and released the rest of the inmates.

Running battles for about four days in the prison in northern England prompted unrest in jails throughout the country. In the weeks of negotiations, inmates complained about being held three or four to a tiny cell, allowed a shower and change of clothes once a week and provided with a bucket instead of a toilet.

During the siege, inmates built and rebuilt barricades and planted booby traps to keep authorities out. But nearly all of the 1,650 prisoners had surrendered by the time more than 100 officers in riot gear moved in Wednesday morning.

The final five holdouts were trapped on the roof, and a sixth inmate was captured in the sweep. - Associated Press