Last 5 Holdouts Give Up, End 25-Day British Prison Takeover

The last five holdout inmates at Strangeways prison surrendered Wednesday, ending a 25-day takeover of the prison nine hours after a raiding party cornered them on the roof.

The Home Office, which oversees the nation’s 125 penal institutions, opted to use force to end Britain’s longest prison siege after lengthy negotiations failed.

The uprising at the prison in Manchester, 200 miles northwest of London, erupted April 1 as a protest against overcrowding and squalid conditions. It inspired disturbances in 11 other facilities across Britain, leaving scores of inmates and guards injured and one prisoner dead.

Britain has the highest per capita prison population in Europe. The rebellions have prompted calls for the system to be overhauled.

After their surrender Wednesday evening, the five prisoners, one by one, boarded a hoist on the chapel roof.

The inmates’ self-declared leader, Paul Taylor, was the last to enter the platform, and the five laughed and waved as they were lowered to the ground, where they were escorted away by waiting officers.

The prisoners’ decision to surrender at 6:20 p.m. came after about 150 riot police nine hours earlier broke through barricades erected by the prisoners to keep authorities at bay inside the devastated Victorian-era facility.