Separation regime to begin at Maghaberry

Loyalist and republican prisoners could rebel against a tough new separation regime at a top security Northern Ireland jail, it was claimed today.

Paramilitary inmates who threatened warders and staged dirty protests in a bid to be kept apart at Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn, Co Antrim are desperate to gain control of the wings, security sources warned.

As the authorities issued a draft contract all prisoners must sign before they are taken into separate blocks, prison bosses insisted they would not yield to further pressure and intimidation.

But sources accepted that the paramilitaries wanted to take charge just as they did at the now-closed Maze jail.

One said: “Experience tells us anything they see as stopping them from having control and power within their own living accommodation they will not be happy about.

“There are already signs of them trying to influence by attacking officers’ homes, but if they think this separation at Maghaberry equates to segregation at the Maze then they will be disappointed.”

Two blocks at the jail, Bush House and Roe House, are undergoing extensive construction work in order to make them secure and safe when the two opposing factions are taken into them in February next year.

Each unit can house 96 inmates in single cell accommodation.

The scheme was brought in by the British government after it accepted recommendations that republican and loyalist prisoners should be held separately and apart from the rest of the inmates.

Republicans affiliated to the dissident Real IRA and Continuity IRA had smeared their cell walls with excrement in order to force the changes.

Loyalists, who also campaigned for the switch, mounted a series of bomb and gun attacks on the homes of prison staff.

But in a special prisoner contract paper published today for consultation, inmates are warned that many of their benefits such as workshop training will not be available in the separation regime.

It is expected that up to 80 loyalists and about 40 republicans will decide to quit the integrated arrangements and be kept just with those from the same community background.

But notorious Ulster Defence Association commander Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair will not be among those allowed into the new accommodation.

He is currently being held in isolation at the top of a women’s wing in Maghaberry following a vicious feud with former terrorist comrades.

Dave Kennedy, a residential governor who will deal with separated prisoners, said: “He (Adair) would not be considered for his own safety.”

Under the old Maze regime paramilitary prisoners were unlocked 24 hours a day and roamed their wings without being checked by warders.

But the authorities insisted that the new scheme at Maghaberry was much tighter, with prisoners only allowed out in small numbers so officers could monitor all movements.

Peter Russell, director general of the Northern Ireland Prison Service, said: “These will be safe and secure conditions for prisoners to live in and there’s unanimity of opinion that we should not be going back to the worst days of the Maze.

“The objective is to say ’this is the deal and that’s it’.”