APPENDIX 11
Memorandum submitted by the British Irish
Rights Watch
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 BRITISH IRISH RIGHTS WATCH (BIRW) is
an independent non-governmental organisation that monitors the
human rights dimension of the conflict and the peace process in
Northern Ireland. Our services are available free of charge to
anyone whose human rights have been affected by the conflict,
regardless of religion or political or community affiliations.
We take no position on the eventual constitutional outcome of
the peace process.
1.2 We welcome this opportunity to respond
to the inquiry by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee into
the Segregation of Paramilitary Prisoners at HMP Maghaberry.
1.3 BIRW has taken a long-term interest
in the conditions in detention of paramilitary prisoners in Northern
Ireland, both in prisons and in the holding centres. Our sole
concern has been for the safety of such prisoners and to ensure
that they are treated in conformity with domestic and international
law and rules relating to the human rights of prisoners and guaranteeing
their right to a fair trial. We have also, of course, been mindful
of the safety of prison officers.
1.4 We have never advocated the segregation
of paramilitary prisoners on political lines. We understand the
historical and political reasons why such segregation came into
existence, but we accept that segregation was far from ideal.
In particular, as the murders of Billy Wright and David Keys graphically
illustrated. Segregation did not provide a safe environment for
prisoners.
1.5 On the other hand, neither have we advocated
enforced integration of paramilitary prisoners. In our view, prison
populations are microcosms of the population as a whole. If Northern
Ireland society is not yet ready for integration, then it is neither
desirable nor possible to use prisons for the conduct of social
experiments in integration.
1.6 We began to receive complaints from
both republican and loyalist paramilitary prisoners at Maghaberry
in around 2001. With the closure of the Maze prison both convicted
and remand prisoners were being sent to Maghaberry, with its integrated
regime. For a number of reasons there were more loyalist than
republican prisoners at Maghaberry, so some republican prisoners
felt particularly vulnerable. At first the complaints we received
were genuinely about the fears of some paramilitary prisoners
on both sides for their safety. Some of them had been threatened
or assaulted inside the jail and were afraid to name the perpetrators
because of the risk of reprisals. Others had been visited by the
police and told that death threats had been made against them.
In these cases, the police had given few details and the prisoners
concerned feared that they might be attacked within the jail.
In some cases, solicitors acting for prisoners contacted us with
concerns about their clients' safety, or confirmed to us that
their clients had been threatened or assaulted.
1.7 As time went by it became obvious that
some prisoners, while they may have entertained genuine fears
about safety, at the same time recognised the potential for using
the issue to achieve political segregation. Dissident republicans
in particular began to campaign for segregation, then loyalists
made common cause with them. The dilemma now facing the prison
authorities is that of allowing a degree of segregation without
returning to the situation that arose in the Maze, where the paramilitaries
had de facto control of the wings.
2. THE STEELE
REVIEW
2.1 In our view the Steele Review paints
a reasonably comprehensive overview of the problems at Maghaberry
and makes a number of very useful recommendations for improving
the situation there. It is obvious that they did not reach their
decision to recommend segregation lightly and it is not clear
to us why the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee feels the need
to look at "the reasons behind the change in policy and the
factors which were taken into account". It seems to us that
Appendix A to the Steele report quite clearly sets out all available
options and indicates their reasoning.
2.2 The report touches on many other issues
and we hope that they will not be lost sight of in the Committee's
consideration of segregation. In particular we would like to highlight
and endorse the following recommendations:
— The appointment of a Prison Ombudsman
for Northern Ireland
— an alternative to imprisonment for
fine defaulters
— an end to housing refugees and asylum
seekers in prison
— an end to doubling prisoners in single
cells
— a reduction in unnecessary bureaucracy
— a newspaper supplier in a neutral
location
— an adequate and comprehensive CCTV
system
— separate entrances for staff and
visitors
— better facilities for visitors.
3. SEGREGATION
3.1 The Steele report recommends that prison
staff must remain on landings and that normal lock-ups should
apply. They have also expressed the hope that off-wing activity,
such as education, should remain integrated.
3.2 We recognise that implementing segregation
will have resource and management implications. We hope that the
Committee will recommend that the government should make the necessary
resources, both financial and logistical, available in order to
achieve the best possible regime.
3.3 We recommend that segregated prisoners
should enjoy precisely the same regime within the wings as integrated
prisoners. The same system of incentives for good behaviour should
apply, as should disincentives for poor conduct. While it will
probably be necessary to segregate prisoners at meal times and
during exercise, other off-wing activity should remain integrated.
If segregated prisoners attempt to cause trouble during integrated
activities, then they could be denied access to that activity
for a period of time proportionate to the extent of their misconduct.
3.4 We also recommend that all prison staff
should be trained to deal with segregation and that duty on segregation
wings should be rotated in the same way as on other duty, so that
dedicated segregation teams of staff are avoided.
3.5 We agree with Steele that prisoners
who are eligible for segregation should be given the option of
integration. However, because of the imbalance in numbers between
republicans and loyalists, ways must be found to avoid isolating
republicans who opt for integration.
3.6 If Steele's recommendation of drug-free
areas is adopted, then segregated prisoners must be able to benefit
from this improvement equally with integrated prisoners.
4. OTHER REFORMS
4.1 Steele recommends that when recruitment
recommences special efforts should be made to recruit more staff
from the nationalist community. We think this does not go far
enough. For historical reasons the prison service in Northern
Ireland is predominantly Protestant in both its composition and
its ethos, which means that it does not reflect the community
of prisoners that it serves. That is not an acceptable state of
affairs.
4.2 Another problem within the prison service
is the disproportionate influence on the management of prisons
wielded by the Prison Officers Association.
4.3 These two factors, together with the
many problems relating to practices and attitudes touched on by
Steele, leads us to conclude that the prison service as a whole
would benefit from a Patten-style overhaul.
4.4 We also believe that the prison estate
in Northern Ireland is out-dated and inadequate. Rather than two
large, concentrated prisons for adult, smaller, more modern facilities
with a wider variety of regimes, including an open prison and
a women's jail, would allow a much more flexible approach to the
need of segregate some prisoners from others. That need is not
unique to paramilitary prisoners, nor to Northern Ireland, but
the present estate makes it harder to meet that need. Incidentally,
we disagree with Steele's recommendation that remand and sentenced
prisoners should be hold jointly. Remand prisoners, who are regarded
as innocent in the eyes of the law, would inevitably be the losers
from that form of integration. Furthermore, international human
rights norms on prisoners insist that remand prisoners should
be held separately.
4.5 Finally, in our experience HMP Magilligan
is not beset by anything like so many problems as HMP Maghaberry.
The reasons for this bear examination in case there are lessons
to be learned.
October 2003
| 
