Overcrowding 'making Maghaberry jail unmanageable'

Northern Ireland’s top-security Maghaberry Prison is becoming unmanageable due to overcrowding, loyalist paramilitaries warned today.

As tensions rise at the jail, the Ulster Defence Association also denied it was behind a spate of attacks on warders.

Prison union bosses have threatened to strike over a series of assaults on officers and bombings at their homes.

But a UDA statement today claimed: “We wish to make clear that the Ulster Defence Association has not been involved in any such attacks.”

The terrorist organisation pledged to work with its political representatives and prisoners’ welfare groups.

Both loyalists and republicans held in the Co Antrim jail have been waging campaigns to be segregated.

Even though the British government has agreed to carry out a £14m (€20m) programme to keep the two factions housed in separate blocks, the UDA insisted big problems remain.

The statement said: “One of the main issues within Maghaberry Prison is overcrowding which is exacerbating the situation in relation to health and safety, to a degree where the prison is becoming unmanageable.”

Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s offensive against the loyalist paramilitaries also came under attack.

Since he took over policing in Northern Ireland he has made no secret of his desire to jail the terror bosses.

But the UDA claimed: “The main reason for the overcrowding is the current Hugh Orde policy of putting loyalists behind bars by whatever means possible, including trumped-up holding charges with no evidence, thus constituting selective internment.”

With elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly looming, the organisation said it would fully endorse the strategy and policies of the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group.

Although the paramilitary grouping has been accused of breaking the 12-month ceasefire named after one of its murdered commanders, the statement insisted there had been no change.

“The UDA reiterates its commitment to working within the framework of the John Gregg Initiative,” it said.