By Murtaza Ali Shah
LONDON: The teenage bowling sensation Muhamamad 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 Geo News 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.