Inmates to be segregated at Maghaberry Prison

The British government has announced plans to separate loyalist and republican inmates at Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim.

The decision follows the publication of a report recommending that paramilitaries be housed in separate areas due to safety fears.

The report was commissioned after loyalist and republican prisoners mounted a series of protests against the integrated regime at Maghaberry. Prison authorities had decided to house the two sides together in an effort to avoid the situation where paramilitary prisoners controlled their own wings of the Maze Prison during the Troubles. Unsurprisingly, the move led to assaults, scaldings and protests by both republicans and loyalists.

Announcing the u-turn on segregation today, Jane Kennedy, the British government’s security minister in the North, insisted that prison officers would retain control in Maghaberry and would not allow paramilitary groups to take over their respective wings. She said prisoners would still be locked up in their cells and sanctions would be available for inmates who refused to comply with the orders of prison staff.

The decision is likely to be viewed as a victory for the prisoners, who had stepped up their segregation campaign in recent times. A small number of dissident republican prisoners had also mounted a so-called "dirty protest" and had threatened to go on hunger strike if their demands were not met, a threat reminiscent of the republican campaigns for political status in 1980 and 1981.