APPENDIX 9
Memorandum submitted by Epic to the Steele
Review
MAGHABERRY PRISON
Over the last year staff at EPIC have increasingly
been made aware of significant problems concerning Loyalists in
Maghaberry Prison. The majority of these problems arise as a consequence
of two aspects of prison policy:
(a) The enforced integration of Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist
prisoners with Catholic/Nationalist/Republican prisoners.
(b) The use of "passive drug dogs"
to screen visitors in respect of drug trafficking.
THE ENFORCED
INTEGRATION OF
PROTESTANT/UNIONIST/LOYALIST
PRISONERS WITH
CATHOLIC/NATIONALIST/REPUBLICAN
PRISONERS
EPIC, while understanding the desirability of
an integrated prison system, contend that it is unrealistic to
enforce such a system in the context of Northern Ireland. It is
a fact that the majority of the population in Northern Ireland
choose to live in areas that almost exclusively reflect their
religious and political beliefs. Indeed the government erects
"peace walls" to facilitate that division. We contend
that it should be the right of prisoners to have a similar choice.
The Prison Authorities should essentially give the prisoners the
option of sharing accommodation with their co-religionists or,
for those who desire it, the opportunity to mix.
We are not suggesting segregation on the grounds
of allegiances to any paramilitary grouping or any form of political
status, just simply that prisons reflect the reality of life in
Northern Ireland. It is fine to aspire to a time when the population
of Northern Ireland feel confident and secure enough to fully
integrate. Unfortunately, we have a long way yet to travel.
If the present policy of forced integration
is persisted with, the inevitability of clashes of a sectarian
nature is clearly evident. Consequently the prison routine is
disrupted, visits and privileges curtailed, and staff, prisoner
alike, suffer.
Another consequence of the enforced integration
policy is that it is providing dissident republicans with a platform
for publicity disproportionate to the mandate for their nefarious
activity. They should be given the opportunity to serve their
sentences in the obscurity that befits their status. Those of
us who are familiar with the prison system here remember too well
how, when it was mishandled in the seventies and eighties, a new
impetus was given to republican terrorism.
THE USE
OF "PASSIVE
DRUG DOGS"
TO SCREEN
VISITORS IN
RESPECT OF
DRUG TRAFFICKING
EPIC is fully supportive of the efforts of all
agencies in the eradication of drugs from society, including the
prison system. Indeed the leadership of the UVF, whose former
prisoners' interests we represent, would share that view. However,
we have grave reservations about the degree of error inherent
in the "passive drug dog" method of detection. Individuals,
well known to us for their implacable opposition to drugs have
had to endure the embarrassment of being singled out by dogs while
visiting Maghaberry. They have no recourse to proving their innocence
and are then subject to the "no smoke without fire"
syndrome by observers.
We have made previous representations to the
prison authorities in respect of this concern and appreciate the
difficulty they have in addressing it. However, we would advocate
that it is revisited and solutions found. It has reached the stage
that totally innocent individuals are reluctant to visit the prison
lest they fall foul of a "passive drug dog".
August 2003
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