LONDON: The teenage bowling sensation Muhamamd Aamer has been shifted
from notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institution to a special secure
rehabilitation centre for young people in Weymouth known as Her
Majesty's Prison Portland, a seaside tourist attraction town in Dorset,
England, it can be revealed.After being sentenced to 6 months
detention (not imprisonment) on Thursday with fellow players Salman Butt
and Muhammad Asif, who were both sent to the high security Wandsworth
prison in South London, the young bowling genius was sent to Feltham
Young Offenders Institution. The decision to send Aamer to Her
Majesty's Prison Portland, which is located in the village of Easton,
came after it was decided by the Prison Services' Youth Justice Board
that the young bowlers deserved to be at a better rehabilitation centre
with modern educational, recreational and teaching facilities with no
stigma such as the one attached to the Feltham Young Offenders
Institution. The Weymouth Young Offenders Institution is considered a
youth hostel and one of the best rehabilitation centres for the 15-21
years old offenders convicted on various charges.A source told
Geo News that Aamer will have every kind of facility at the centre where
he can play sports, attend education classes, exercise at the gym, use
internet and take part in charitable events after a month or so,
including collecting money for the local charities. Aamer will, each
week, receive up to 25 hours of education, skills and other activities,
including programmes looking at improving the behaviour of the young
inmates.A source told that Muhammad Aamer demonstrated
extremely good behavior for the two days he spent at the rehabilitation
centre. The news of his arrival at the Feltham Young Offenders
Institution had spread like wildfire amongst the more than 750 under 21
years old young inmates at the prison even before he was sent there from
the holding cells at the Southwark Crown Court on Thursday. According
to a source at the institution, Aamer spent the first two nights in
Bittern unit, where the 8 holding units are named after birds. He was
given access to TV, games and telephone straight away.Aamer's
quick relocation is a far cry from the notorious Feltham Young
Offenders' Institution where a 19 years old Pakistani Zahid Mubarek was
killed in March 2000 by a white racist psychopath Robert Stewart. The
teenager was sent to Feltham Young Offenders Institution after being
found guilty of stealing razors and interfering with a motor vehicle.Robert
Stewart, a prolific offender from the Manchester area, attacked Zahid
Mubarek when he was preparing to come home at the end of his sentence.
Hours before his release, Stewart took a table leg and batters his
cellmate. Seven days later, Zahid Mubarek died in hospital from his
injuries. Stewart was charged with his murder and found guilty of murder
and sentenced to life.A report by the Commission for Racial
Equality seven years ago found "widespread racism" at the jail, with
Black and Asian inmates subjected to bullying and unfavourable treatment
by wardens. Sir David Ramsbotham, the chief inspector of prisons, said
the prison was "rotten to the core". The report said inmates had not
been encouraged to report cases of racial abuse, and only five or six
had been reported every month, but since his report the number has
increased to 50 or 60 per month.
