Clause 12 - Transfer of prisoners
Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Desmond Swayne (New Forest West, Conservative)
The Minister will be glad that I am now breaking my silence. The probing amendment No. 27 is the most interesting in the group, as it would require a report. It arises from the recent history of Her Majesty's prison Maghaberry, which was described in the 2002 report of the chief inspector of prisons as the most complex and diverse prison establishment in the United Kingdom, and from the legacy of the Maze, with its history of segregating paramilitary prisoners.
After the closure of the Maze, Maghaberry made significant progress with an integrationist regime, but it was not universally welcomed, especially by the paramilitaries. Protests and assaults began in 2001 and escalated until last summer, with a campaign against enforced integration across the sectarian divide on the ground that it put individuals' safety at risk.
On 7 August 2003, the Secretary of State initiated the Steele review, which reported on 8 September and recommended a new regime of separation, not segregation, for paramilitaries.
I shall not go into the enormous ramifications of that regrettable decision—regrettable in the widest sense. I understand entirely the pressures on Ministers and the prison service. It is a matter of regret that such a decision had to be taken. I shall not go into the ramifications because we have only one concern in the amendments: that the discipline of the new separated regime and the primacy of staff control that cannot and must not be compromised. The line must be held at separation and there must be no return to the sort of regime that prevailed in the Maze.
Paramilitaries are already trying to chip away at the regime. They main issue concerning disciplinary sanctions is what the staff can apply to hold that line. Governor McAleer put his finger on the problem when he gave evidence to the Select Committee on 12 November 2003. He said:
''If you have people who will commit themselves to hunger strike and are prepared to die, if you have people who are prepared to go on a dirty protest and you took one of them out and you said to him, 'I am going to stop your remission now' I do not think that plays any part in their thinking really. Certainly we would welcome any sort of punishment for people not obeying the rules and we will look at that.''
A new sort of punishment is now set out in the Bill—the power to transfer. There is no question of transferring in Northern Ireland because there are only three prisons, only one of which—Maghaberry—is capable of holding such prisoners. The possibility exists of transferring to England or Wales, but transferring to Scotland would require a Sewel motion or action by the Scottish Parliament and that is not an option in the Bill.