Video shows prisoners run riot after smashing through walls at HMP Winchester
Ministry of Justice officials blamed "weaknesses" in the walls for the riot at HMP Winchester
Newly leaked footage from inside the Category B lockup, built in 1846, shows two holes in the wall which has been whittled by the prisoners.
The gang – some of them wearing masks – then proceed to lob bricks over the railings on the wing landing as they run riot.
Laughter can be heard from the prisoners recording the video from behind a glass door.
One prisoner can even be seen appearing to be armed with an officer’s baton.
And one prisoner with a T-shirt tied around his head grabs hold of firehose and sprays down onto the floor below.
Prisoners’ rights campaigner Cody Lachey – who released the footage on his YouTube channel – said it highlights the severe dilapidation of Victorian jails in Britain.
He criticised the conditions in the “run down” lock-ups and said it is only a matter of time before the UK has another rampage like the Strangeways riot of 1990.
That incident saw one prisoner killed and inmates take control of the lockup for 25 days – with 147 prisoner officers and 47 convicts injured, and repairs of £50million.
The campaigner – himself an ex-convict – told Daily Star Online the riot was born out of the inmates' frustration with the conditions inside the prison.
He said: “When you are thrown in prison, especially with these conditions, a lot of these kids become feral.
"We are social creatures, and prisons have to be places of humanity and decency.
“When your living quarters are like something out of Dickensian England, how can you re-engage a disenfranchised individual?"
He added: “You have got walls when the brickwork is just falling out, so they are going to take advantage.
“The prisons and the system are as broken as the people entering it – you go in broken and leave in pieces, or worse a bodybag.”
Prison Service officials said they would push for the "strongest possible punishment” for those involved in the incident on Tuesday.
At least 19 prisoners escaped their cells by “manipulating weaknesses” in the walls, the Ministry of Justice said.
Pepper spray was used to restrain two of the inmates and officers in riot gear were called in to quell the disturbance.
No-one is believed to have been hurt the incident, but four inmates were taken to hospital as a “precaution”.
MoJ bosses warned they had “serious concerns” about violence and inmate safety at HMP Winchester just last month – giving it the lowest performance rating.
The prison's latest Independent Monitoring Board report in September 2018 said cells “regularly need repair because of wear and tear or vandalism”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to spend £100 million to beef up prison security and also promised to create new prison places.
His announcements have been dismissed as “hollow” by the Liberal Democrats and as falling “woefully short” by Labour.