Separation by paramilitary affiliation where:

Staff remain in charge;

Specific training has been delivered to 252 staff and this training was independently evaluated in 2004. The training was well received and considered to be extremely effective and relevant. All staff required to work in the separated houses will normally receive full training before and during deployment.

Regular de-briefing sessions have been held and staff have participated enthusiastically.

Staff have had, and will continue to have, access to psychological support.

In serious cases removal of a prisoner to another jurisdiction might be considered.
Separated prisoners are subject to the same rules as the rest of the prison population. A number of amendments were made to prison rules following the introduction of separation to deal with prisoners who are capable of acting in a collective way including the power to transfer a prisoner to another UK jurisdiction compulsorily.

Separated prisoners have been the subject of around 70 adjudications since March 2004.

Changes to Prison Rules allowed for the prosecution of those attempting to mask their identity and prohibited the wearing of uniform or other clothing or the display of any article in such a way as to arouse reasonable suspicion that the prisoner concerned is a member or a supporter of a proscribed organisation.

It remains the Government's view that the transfer power will be used sparingly and subject to safeguards. To date it has not been necessary to consider exercising the power.

Changes in the Rules also provide both for greater powers for Governors in the penalties they could impose for certain offences against discipline, and the ability to award added days by an independent legally qualified commissioner. Two such commissioners have been appointed.

Resources:

Staffing levels

The shortfall between deployment of extra staff to Maghaberry and the recruitment of new staff was made up by staff working additional hours.

To date, 82 Night Custody Officers have been recruited to free up prison officers. Recruitment of further NCOs is under consideration.

Work on introducing new staffing deployment and a more efficient shift system is currently underway and, subject to discussions with staff associations, it is hoped to implement new arrangements during 2005. Sick absence procedures have been tightened up and during 2005/06 the key performance indicator for sick absence will be further reduced.

Fine defaulters:

The Secretary of State should find a way of dealing with them other than imprisonment.......

Detainees:

The Review Team suggests that urgent steps are taken to deal with them outside the Prison system.

Morale:

The Review Team considered the compromise of staff details in October 2002 and the subsequent incursion into Dundonald House in July 2003, taken together with the perception of foot dragging and penny pinching over security measures and the increased number of attacks on prison officer's homes accounted for a decline in morale.

When the Service was advised that the personal details of some 1,426 prison officers had been compromised, Ministers immediately asked the Chief Constable to assess the level of threat pertaining to those involved. They agreed to a generic, rather than the normal individual assessment in order to allow the Key Persons Protection Unit (KPPU) to deal with the situation as quickly as possible. All officers were considered to be under a significant level of threat. There is no disparity between prison officers and any other public servant assessed to be under the same level of threat. The measures being provided are exactly the same, as is the amount of money available for each case. 669 officers have been admitted to the scheme.

Due to the number of individuals involved the KPPU had no alternative but to carry out the work in a phased way to ensure that each officer was given a degree of protection and reassurance as quickly as possible. A three-phased programme of work commenced early in January 2003. To date phases one and two have been completed. Under phase 3, work is either complete or well underway in 78% of the cases.

During negotiations with the POA the Secretary of State agreed to reassess the package of measures that have been recommended for, or provided at, the homes of those admitted to the scheme to determine if the protection of additional ground floor windows is necessary. To do this, the Secretary of State agreed to appoint, in agreement with the POA, an independent adviser. Two advisers have been appointed and commenced work on 1 March 2004 .

To date 271 officers have applied to have their cases reviewed. The Independent Advisers have considered 91% of these cases and the additional windows recommended will be installed when the Phase 3 work has been completed. Work under Phase 4 will commence in January 2005.

There have been no significant attacks on prison officers' homes for some considerable time.

Sickness levels, often an indication of levels of morale, have been gradually reducing and staff in the separated accommodation in Maghaberry have the lowest levels of sickness in the prison.

Prison Officers' Association:

The Review Team called for an improvement in relationships with the POA at all levels.

The agreement between the Secretary of State and the Prison Officers' Association in January 2004 created an opportunity to rebuild relationships. Further agreements have been made on outstanding issues and consultations continue on any issues arising.

The poor relationship with the Prison Officers' Association has been actively addressed using the conciliation services of the Labour Relations Agency. An agreement was reached on the introduction of Night Custody Officers.

Confidence:

....build up the confidence of staff, especially those who deal with paramilitary prisoners. Training, sympathetic management, close support and help after serious incidents, as well as regular change of work area, can all play a part.

Staff in the separated houses all receive specialist training before being deployed as well as full support and regular debriefing whilst deployed to separation.

They have an attractive shift pattern which compares favourably with the rest of the prison and have frequent changes of areas of work.

Recruiting:

When recruiting recommences a special effort should be made to recruit from the nationalist community.

Doubling:

....... hope that the Governor will work towards a substantial reduction in this practice.

By utilising spare accommodation in Bush & Roe, doubling has been reduced. During 2005 the Service will be establishing a statistical database to monitor the extent of doubling caused by lack of manned accommodation.

In some instances, for example when a prisoner is considered to be at risk to him or her self, doubling is an acceptable measure to reduce risk.

It is planned that the building of a new houseblock will commence shortly.

Remand/Sentenced

At present sentenced and remand prisoners are held separately. The Review Team considers that greater efficiency in regime delivery might be achieved if they could be held together.

Prison Rule 99 (1) states 'Untried prisoners shall be kept out of contact with other prisoners as far as this can reasonably be done.'

Bureaucracy:

It should not be necessary to apply every day for prescribed medication. Nor should it be necessary to fill in a form if you want to go to church. And an efficient letter censoring process should be regarded as a priority.

Medication is ordered on a monthly basis and, following satisfactory risk assessment, by far the majority of prisoners, around 80%, receive a week's medication at a time.

At the request of the Chaplains, prisoners indicate on a form if they wish to attend a Sunday Service. This is to provide information on the numbers attending. There is no question of prisoners seeking permission to attend.

Censoring is carried out at the same levels throughout the prison and is commensurate with risk.

Newspapers:

A second supplier should be identified at a neutral location.

Drugs:

A drug free area should be established.

Cameras:

.. the closed circuit television system should be upgraded and extended throughout the prison.

Reserve accommodation:

At present there is little reserve accommodation available in the Northern Ireland Prison system (other than Maze which will soon become unavailable). This needs to be rectified as soon as possible either by accelerating a proposed new build at Maghaberry or by arranging other emergency measures.

Searching:

.. prisoners are not searched on return from workshops and that x-ray and metal detector machines are often turned off. This needs to be rectified.

Staff security:

Staff consider that their security could be improved if staff and visitors did not enter the same gates and if the staff car park could not be seen by visitors.......

.....staff feel that security precautions at their homes are being implemented too slowly. The Northern Ireland Office should examine ways of speeding things up.

It is not practical to re-locate the staff or visitors entrances however, staff car parks have been screened.

See under morale

Quakers:

At present Quaker staff are required to enter the visits area through the search box with prisoners. This can be an unpleasant experience and staff should be permitted to revert to entering with visitors.

Visits:

There are problems getting through to the prison to make a booking....

Problems with queuing at the gate in all weathers...

Problems of timing...

Problems relating to the environment in visits....

Problems relating to the passive drugs dog and the use of closed visits....

....these problems are urgent and that closer management and training should be put in place immediately.

There are now four dedicated staff handling the booking of visits.

An all weather shelter has been constructed at the visitors' entrance.

Separated prisoners receive the same visits entitlements as integrated prisoners

The Service's Drug Prevention Policy and use of the passive drugs dog and closed visits in particular, were recently tested in the courts by a series of judicial reviews and found to be Human Rights compliant and proportionate to the drugs problem in prisons.

A family officer has been appointed who liaises with prisoners families inside and outside the prison to discuss the impact on families of imprisonment.

There has been specialist Bernado's training of some visits staff and family themed visits have been introduced supported by the Prison Arts Foundation and the Quakers.

A Road Safety week was held for prisoners' children hosted by DoE.

Child-centred visits have been introduced and continue to develop.

Public relations:

The Prison Service should draw up a plan to inform the public about the realities of life in prison for staff and inmates

Prisoner Support Groups:

At present the Prison Service appears to have little communication with political and other groups representing the interests of prisoners. The Review Team believes that building constructive relationships with such groups at Headquarters and Establishment levels could be useful for both the Service and the prisoners.

New arrangements were put in place with effect from 29 January 2004. During office hours the representatives have been asked to contact the Prison Service Director of Services. Out of hours the representatives have been advised to contact the NIO duty officer. The new arrangements appear to be working satisfactorily.

The new arrangements continue to operate in a broadly satisfactory manner. In the 8 months following introduction of the new procedures, the Director of Services had a total of 16 meetings with representatives of various separated prisoner factions and had a total of 141 telephone discussions with them. On 27 August 2004 , EPIC and PANG formed a new group, Prisoners Human Rights Watch, to represent the interests of all loyalist separated prisoners at meetings with the Northern Ireland Prison Service. Notes of all meetings and telephone calls with representatives of paramilitary prisoners are prepared by the Director of Services and sent to the relevant prisoner group. Copies are also sent to the Governing Governor at HMP Maghaberry and the Governor in charge of the separated prisoners. Copies are available for reading by staff at HMP Maghaberry under controlled conditions.

Separated prisoners now have access to their own dedicated gymnasium.

Computer facilities have been installed in both separated houses

Additional holding rooms have been provided to speed up movement of separated prisoners between residential houses, visits and video link.

Additional dedicated transport has been provided for the exclusive use of separated prisoners.