A PRISON will be targeted for a protest against alleged racist treatment of prisoners and in opposition to plans to expand and almost treble the number of offenders incarcerated there.

Campaigners said that they expect hundreds to take part in a Tear Down the Walls demonstration from 2pm at HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire.

The protest is supported by Sisters Uncut Leeds and Community Action Against Prison Expansion (Cape) which is opposing plans to turn Full Sutton into a “mega prison” holding 1,440 offenders in government plans to create 10,000 new prison places.

Full Sutton, which is in rural East Yorkshire near Pocklington, currently holds 596 prisoners.

The campaigners allege that two specific prisoners — Kevan Thakrar and Dwayne Fulgance — have been subjected to racist attacks involving both prison officers and offenders.

They are calling for the immediate transfer of one of them from a notorious close supervision centre (CSC) where he is held in his cell for 23 hours a day.

Mr Thakrar’s mother, Jean Thakrar, said: “The level of confinement and deprivation of contact with other human beings in CSCs is comparable to ‘solitary confinement’ due to sensory deprivation and social isolation. 

“This is happening in the UK today. Not a Third World country or the United States. Right here on our doorstep. And no-one is being held accountable.”

A spokesperson from Sisters Uncut Leeds said: “As we see from the horrific racist attacks experienced by Kev and Dwayne, prisons are not the answer to serious violence in our society – they instead create more violence.

“The planned mega prison at Full Sutton means throwing more money at violence against people from marginalised communities at a time when essential domestic violence services are critically underfunded and austerity has deprived our communities for over a decade.

“Affordable housing, education, mental health services, domestic and sexual violence services are the solutions, not more prisons.

“The Ministry of Justice cares more about profiting from the cheap labour of prisoners than about protecting people from harm and poverty. 

“We demand an end to the prison estates transformation programme now. We want investment in services that help people rather than harm people.”

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been invited to comment.