The BBC's Jane Peel: A "scathing" report

Mr Straw told MPs that a report by Chief Inspector of Prisons Sir David Ramsbotham had found "the overall the treatment of prisoners remained profoundly unsatisfactory" despite previous calls for improvement.

Sir David's report made "deeply disturbing reading", Mr Straw said.

He added: "What I require is a radical overhaul of Wormwood Scrubs, its culture and its working practices."

But although the home secretary said he agreed with the vast majority of Sir David's recommendations, he said the prison would not be closed down in the short term.

He said: "Should rapid progress not be made all options including market testing and the closure of the prison remain open."

The home secretary also demanded that an action plan to improve conditions at the prison be outlined by the head of the prison service, Martin Narey, within a month.

Jack Straw: Closure remains an option

The prison would be re-inspected in six months' time "to ensure progress", Mr Straw said.

Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe welcomed Mr Straw's decision not to close the prison. Closure she said would have been "short on common sense".

But Miss Widdecombe demanded to know what action had been taken by ministers to improve the jail during the two years Labour has been in power.

'Evil' treatment of prisoners

Prison Officers Association's Mark Healey: "It is a very sorry day that it has come to this"

Sir David said the prison had deteriorated since his last report over two years ago, describing the treatment of prisoners there as "evil".

He said prisoners were given inadequate exercise, education, or health care. Racial abuse was a problem and prison visitors were not treated with professional courtesy by prison staff.

The chief inspector made his findings during a surprise visit in March and described the prison as suffering from a "pall of depression".

Sir David said: "The responsibility for what I have now found twice at Wormwood Scrubs in two and a half years rests with the prisons board and senior managers in the prison service, and not solely with local managers."

Criminal investigation

As well as being roundly damned in Sir David's report the Scrubs has already been in the headlines this month after the Crown Prosecution Service announced the charging of the 25 officers two weeks ago after allegations of systematic beatings.

The decision followed the biggest criminal investigation into a British jail.

At the same time suspensions meant that a whole wing was temporarily closed ahead of schedule for refurbishment to ease the staffing crisis.

Earlier this month, angry members of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) carried out a sit-down protest in the prison chapel after which the governor agreed to provide them with extra training to tackle violent inmates.

Difficult to reform jail

Norman Parker, a convicted murderer turned author who has served more than 25 years in prison, says it would be difficult to reform the jail until the power of the POA was broken.

He told BBC News Online: "The problem is the POA. What are they doing having a sit-down? Are they saying charges should be dropped against their members?"

Parker, who spent three years in the Scrubs in the 1970s, says: "I'm not being racist, but if it had been white prisoners who were being beaten up I don't think there would have so much of a stink.