Robert Stewart is serving a life sentence for the killing

Feltham's independent monitoring board told Michael Howard and Jack Straw that violence was flourishing at the prison.

But the board's former chairwoman said ministers took no action over self-harm, overcrowding and assaults in the west London institution.

Zahid Mubarek, 19, was killed by his cellmate Robert Stewart in March 2000.

In 1998, the then Chief Inspector of Prisons Sir David Ramsbotham wrote a damning report into conditions at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution, criticising its regime and demanding immediate change.

Appearing before the public inquiry into the Mubarek's death, former chairwoman Lucy Bogue said the board, a group of independent visitors attached to a prison, had twice raised similar concerns.

It was always of concern to the board that the only individual who gave credence to the board's concerns was the chief inspector... Lucy Bogue Board chairwoman

Visitors were regularly recording prisoner assaults and believed over-crowding and other factors were leading to a tense environment.

The board wrote twice to the then Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard in 1996.

On the first occasion, Anne Widdecombe, then prisons minister, wrote back to the organisation. Ms Bogue says the board has no record of a reply to its second letter.

The visitors took their concerns once more to the Home Office following Labour's 1997 General Election victory.

"The [then] chair in 1998 felt the situation at Feltham had reached such a point of concern that he met with the Home Secretary [Jack Straw] to raise all the issues," said Ms Bogue.

"We also felt compelled to write to Sir David Ramsbotham.

It was always of concern to the board that the only individual who gave credence to the board's concerns was the chief inspector, who was raising the same concerns himself.

"It is my opinion that the concerns raised by the independent monitoring board, and the lack of response received was key to the lack of adequate care delivered not only to Zahid Mubarek, but also to all boys who were at Feltham during that time."

Squalid conditions

In 1999, the year running up to Mubarek's death, Ms Bogue said the board believed that conditions in the young offenders' institution were still poor and that prisoner assaults were a "growing phenomenon".

Zahid Mubarek, 19, was beaten to death by his own cellmate

"Board members were very aware of the problem amongst prisoners who yelled abuse at each other through the windows," said Ms Bogue.

"When prisoners were subsequently unlocked, they would be spoiling to assault one another."

On Swallow Unit, Zahid Mubarek and Robert Stewart's unit, showers were left broken for months after bring condemned as unusable.

With staff shortages adding to the problems, many inmates were not allowed to properly wash.

"Whilst I do not suggest that the shameful state of Swallow Unit led directly to the death of Zahid Mubarek, I do invite the inquiry to examine the extent to which the locking up of boys in such squalid conditions was indirectly a contributory factor as setting the tone of creating an environment of want of care and dignity in which unchecked gratuitous violence - and indeed murder - could flourish," Ms Bogue said.

Staff criticised

Ms Bogue said both the prison service senior management and Prison Officers' Association had to shoulder blame for conditions at Feltham.

She said the board had been concerned on discovering that their reports on Feltham were not being read by the then director general of prisons, Richard Tilt.

Inside the institution itself, the visitors gained the impression that the "strained relationship" between management and staff was largely down to a "militant and reactionary" stance from Prison Officers' Association.

"The POA was unwilling to negotiate and that the chairman at the time had an arbitrarily entrenched attitude towards change.