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In
the past few days the issue of segregation in the
North’s jails has made prime time viewing. For
as long as I remember the separation of prisoners
has featured in the discourse associated with prisons.
Throughout the 1980s in particular it was a regular
news item. The British state seems to think that if
it builds a new penal establishment or change the
name of an existing one that, hey presto, the nature
of the problem shall have disappeared. Do they ever
learn?
Maghaberry,
when first opened in the 1980s was heralded as a model
prison that would leave the problems of Long Kesh
and the H-Blocks well behind in the distant past remembered
for its relic status. Now it seems that the model
prison is modelled only on the repressive strategies
and practices developed in the H-Blocks. While talk
of turning Long Kesh into a museum has quite legitimately
been on the agenda of some, a more pressing issue
exists in the here and now. That is to address the
vindictive prison regime at present prevailing in
Maghaberry.
Yesterday
Dundonald House, which houses amongst other things
the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Service,
was occupied for a short period by a number of protestors,
either families and friends of imprisoned republicans
or members of the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare
Association (IRPWA). The purpose of the occupation
was to highlight the conditions in Maghaberry Prison.
Central to the protestors demands was that of segregation.
Shortly
before the protest commenced The Blanket was
informed by a representative of the IRPWA that a picket
of Dundonald House would take place. We agreed to
cover it. Our reasons are simple. While we do not
support any armed activity of physical force republicans
and seriously challenge the validity of that tradition
in today’s world, we do feel that those imprisoned
as a result of their association with that activity
are worthy of our support. Many of us at The Blanket
are former republican prisoners and feel strongly
about the mistreatment meted out to those in the custody
of the British state. We also have a strong affinity
with their families.
Having
entered the building with the protestors I made it
clear to the staff that I was a journalist covering
the protest. At one point a person claiming to be
in charge of the building asked me to leave the specific
room where the protest was taking place. He said I
had no legitimate business being there. I challenged
him on this, explaining that I had a duty to report
on an item that would be of public interest. For too
long the business of the prisons had been hidden from
public view and this had allowed for many abuses.
I also suggested to him that it was ironic that he
was asking a journalist to leave but not the protestors.
While polite he insisted that I leave. I agreed but
made it clear to him that I would only leave the room
and would stay outside the door in order to report
on the views and activities of the protestors. I also
informed him that I would be willing to talk to any
member of staff on any issue that they might wish
to raise. He said that staff would be reluctant to
talk on the record with a journalist but he was happy
enough that I stand outside the room.
Today,
Finlay Spratt of the Prison Officers Association appeared
on television to claim that the protestors had inside
information which allowed them to target the proper
room in the building. This is utter nonsense. I followed
the protestors into the building and up the stairs.
It was an organisational calamity. They had no idea
where they were going, running from one floor to the
next chancing their arm until they found a room they
could actually get into. The first room was the Department
of Agriculture library. A member of staff in that
room apparently told them that it would be a waste
of time hanging their banners from the windows of
that room as there would be no one in the fields to
see them. At that point they ran across the corridor
to the first room they could find that was at the
front of the building. I asked many of them questions
at each step of the way and far from being a well
thought out ’military exercise’ by ’dissident
republicans’ intent on mounting an intelligence
coup against the British state, no one seemed to know
what the next step was. It had all the strategic precision
we would associate with cows in a field, wandering
to whatever opening presented itself. The only reason
the protestors got up the stairs was because the building
was as open as Royal Avenue. At no point, apart from
the incident in the occupied room, was I stopped or
asked not to proceed any further.
Finlay
Spratt is merely continuing in the money grabbing
groove for which the Northern Ireland Prison Service
is renowned. He is seeking to disguise the true nature
of the regime that his members implement, and in deflecting
attention away from the real victims is seeking to
depict his associates as blameless beings innocent
of any propensity for brutality or maltreatment. If
there is the slightest shred of substance in his allegations
that documents containing the personal details of
prison staff were seized in the building by some of
the protestors it is difficult to imagine how they
were spirited out. The PSNI stopped everyone leaving
the building, took names and addresses, behaved civilly
and allowed everybody to go their way.
The
Northern Ireland Office would serve the public better
if it ignored the spurious allegations of Finlay Spratt
and seriously addressed itself to solving the situation
in Maghaberry Prison. Otherwise, future press reporting
may be dealing with matters much more serious than
occupied buildings or allegedly stolen documents.
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