INMATES across Britain were welcomed into the New Year with the roar of solidarity, as activists staged their annual noise demonstrations outside prisons.

 

Dozens assembled outside Brixton jail in south London, banging pots and pans and shouting: “No justice, no peace, fuck the police.”

 

The protest aimed to highlight the violent way in which Brixton inmates are treated by some wardens and the justice system. 

 

Local resident Steven Ellis told the Star he attended the protest because “it’s important to show solidarity with people incarcerated by racist state institutions.”

 

The event was organised by a coalition of groups, including the London Campaign Against Police Violence and the National Union of Students Black Students branch. 

 

According to the Prison Reform Trust, while 10 per cent of the prison population is black — substantially higher than the 3 per cent of Britons who are black.

 

The charity warns that “there is now greater disproportionality in the number of black people in prisons in the UK than in the United States.”

 

Protests were also held outside Pentonville and Holloway prisons in north London.

 

In Cardiff, campaigners took similar action, continuing an international tradition of breaking the isolation of those locked up in cells with loud noise and cheers during the festive period.

 

At HM Prison Cardiff, activist Janie Mac said: “We live in a world that uses the prison system for financial gain through incarceration not rehabilitation. Where people are a commodity. In places it is slavery under a new guise.

 

“We have children locked away indefinitely and with the new private prison system there is no accountability and it is a travesty of our times.

 

“We want prisoners to know they are not alone they are loved as humans and we are not there to judge but in solidarity.”