N ORTHERN I RELAND PRISON ESTABLISHMENTS

Northern Ireland has three prison establishments: Maghaberry Prison, Magilligan Prison and Hydebank Wood Prison and Young Offenders’ Centre. These are Prison Service establishments under the Department of Justice. There is also a custodial centre for children aged 10 to 17: Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre, a Youth Justice Agency establishment, also under the Department of Justice.

2.1 Maghaberry

Built as a maximum-security prison, Maghaberry was opened in 1986 (the Mourne House Women’s Unit) and 1987 (the male prison). In 2004, women prisoners were moved from Maghaberry to Ash House, a unit inside Hydebank Wood Young Offenders’ Centre for young men. Maghaberry is the North’s only adult male committal prison. In terms of its population, the prison is diverse and complex. It accommodates all categories of male prisoners, including those on remand, those serving short sentences and those serving long sentences, including life. It also has two houses dedicated to politically affiliated prisoners: Loyalist and Republican. Whilst the inspectorates recognise that this diverse population requires different security levels, all

12 Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) (2010) Northern Ireland Prison Service Corporate Governance Arrangements: An inspection of corporate governance arrangements within the Northern Ireland Prison Service. December (2010). Belfast: CJINI pp. v-vi

prisoners are subjected to maximum security conditions. ‘Thus someone serving five days for fine default receives the same security regime as someone serving a 10-year-sentence for serious assault’.¹³ Inevitably, the imposition of blanket high security conditions has significant ramifications for prisoners’ families, particularly children.

Maghaberry is located in a rural setting 20 miles southwest of Belfast, 73 miles southeast of Derry and 30 miles north of Newry. While close to the M1 motorway travelling by public transport is difficult. A free bus service runs from Lisburn railway station twice a day, morning and afternoon. Other transport is offered by voluntary organisations, supported by funding from the prison service. As a maximum-security prison, Maghaberry is a forbidding place, especially in bad weather. Irwin describes Maghaberry Prison as ‘a large and imposing complex, oppressively grey, surrounded by barbed wire and security cameras, with guards and sniffer dogs on patrol’.¹⁴

Visitors arrive at a purpose-built visitors’ centre outside the prison, a modern facility independently managed and staffed by the Quaker Service. It is warm, well equipped and the centre staff are supportive and understanding. Visitors can access advice, information and personal guidance in confidence. Food and drink are available and there is a small crèche. Given the distances travelled, the Centre provides an opportunity for families to prepare for their visit. The Quaker Service has plans to further develop the Centre to offer a greater range of support to families.

Visitors either walk, or travel on a bus, from the Centre to the prison gates, where they are admitted for a ‘rub down’ search and a ‘passive drug dog’ search. If the drug dog indicates that a visitor might be carrying drugs, or might have had recent contact with drugs, the visitor is offered a closed visit. A closed visit is in a divided room, the prisoner on one side of a glass partition, his visitors on the other side. Alternatively, the visitor leaves the prison. The 2009 inspection, for the second successive occasion, recommended that closed visits ‘should not be imposed automatically on a single dog indication without any supporting intelligence or consideration of alternative operational procedures’.¹⁵

Visits are held Tuesday to Friday. There are three one-hour sessions each morning and two each afternoon. Separated visits are held for one hour twice a day. A regular complaint, supported by the inspectorates, is that while visitors arrived in the visits room on time, prisoners were often delayed, cutting short their entitled visit. The Prisoner Ombudsman has also noted concerns about visits being shorter than planned and recommended that every effort should be made to ensure that this does not happen.¹⁶ The capacity of the visits room has been recorded as inadequate by the Inspectorate and the most recent inspection concluded, ‘The visits room accommodating the majority of prisoners (despite previous recommendations) was unchanged and continued to be cramped, with fixed furniture, and was noisy with little privacy between groups of prisoners’.¹⁷

Child-centred Visits are offered to selected long-term prisoners to enable prisoners to have personal contact with their children or grandchildren. Fathers and grandfathers serving a life sentence or a determinate sentence and those who have been on remand

13 HMIP/CJINI (2009) Report of a full unannounced follow-up inspection of Maghaberry Prison 19-23 January 2009. Belfast: CJINI. P. v

14 Irwin, T. (2008) ‘The “Inside” Story: practitioner perspectives on teaching in prison’ Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 47(5) p. 515

15 HMIP/CJINI (2009) p. 95

16 Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (2010) Inside Issues Belfast: Prisoner Ombusdman

17 As above p. 96

for over three months are eligible to apply. Prisoners charged with, or convicted of, sex offences and those subject to a court order restricting access to their children are barred from applying. These visits operate over lunchtime on Saturdays, with families on the scheme allocated one visit each month. However, staffing issues or public holidays often delay access, in some cases by several weeks. In practice, the situation is complicated by the need to provide separate child-centred visiting arrangements for Republican, Loyalist and ordinary prisoners.

Child-centred visits are supported by Quakers’ staff and by Family Support Officers.

Following the regular visit, the visits room and the play area are available for prisoners to play with their children. Lunches are provided for mothers and carers in a separate room where they meet together with family support officers. There are no age restrictions on children, and visitors bring books, photographs and toys, which are also scanned for drugs. Whilst these visits are well organised, they are suitable mainly for younger children. There are few facilities for older children. The limitation on numbers results in only a small proportion of prisoners, approximately 30, being able to participate in the Scheme.

2.2 Magilligan

Opened in 1972 as a ‘compound prison’, Magilligan had its original Nissen huts and compounds removed in the early 1980s, but the single-storey H-blocks remain, holding the majority of its population without in-cell sanitation and giving the appearance of a prison camp despite some modern additions to the buildings. As a prison holding sentenced male prisoners with six years or less to serve, its population is drawn from the length and breadth of Northern Ireland. Yet the prison is located in one of the most inaccessible sites in Northern Ireland. Magilligan Point is 90 miles north of Newry, 67 miles north-west of Belfast and 25 miles north-east of Derry. Beyond the northern perimeter fence sand dunes form a natural barrier between the prison and the sea and a military firing range. Other than accessing a small ferry across Lough Foyle, the only traffic on the narrow approach road connects the prison to the world outside. It is a desolate and remote location, poorly served by public transport. Visiting the prison from most towns involves a full day, expensive return trip that on public transport requires a combination of buses, trains and taxis. The Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO) also services the prison via minibuses.

Visiting Magilligan for the first time is daunting and intimidating. There is no car park, but an off-road, unsurfaced patch of ground that in wet weather gathers pools of water.

A small, well-used portakabin is the visitors’ centre. It houses the NIACRO office, a coffee/tea bar, a room with tables and chairs, and toilets. The cold and bleak physical environment contrasts to the welcoming and friendly NIACRO staff. Visitors make a short walk from the portakabin to the prison entrance where they must stand at the prison gate, often for some time. Entering the prison, visitors pass through five gates.

On each side of the path, and within the main prison wall, are high double fences topped with razor wire. The metalwork is discoloured by rust and the patches of ground between the fences are overgrown.

A covered walkway leads to the visits building. Midway along the walkway is another small portakabin designated as the ‘Families Contact Office’. This is the cramped office of Magilligan’s sole Family Support Officer, a prison officer who supports and cares for families. Leaving the walkway, visitors enter the visits building, another prefabricated block in keeping with the appearance of a prison camp. Once checked in, their personal possessions placed in lockers, visitors move through a security check similar to airport security. They stand at designated places and a dog and its handler move

between them for a ‘passive drugs test’. Having cleared security, visitors enter a small reception area adjacent to the visits hall. Here, adults and children aged 16 and over provide a biometric hand print. Once cleared, they enter the hall.

The visits hall is rectangular, accommodating three rows of low tables, each with three or four fixed seats. Chairs coloured green are for prisoners, blue for visitors. At each end of the hall are raised observation stations staffed by prison officers, their closed-circuit television (CCTV) monitors displaying coverage of the visits. In a corner of the hall is a small well-equipped crèche staffed by two workers. Adjacent to the crèche are two PlayStations for older children. To the side of the hall is a small kitchen servicing the visits with drinks, sandwiches, biscuits and other snacks. At one end of the hall a door opens onto a narrow corridor in which are the closed visits cubicles (for those prisoners subject to closed visiting conditions). Inside, separated by a glass partition, the prisoner and his family communicate by a single telephone; there is no natural light and no air conditioning. The small space is stifling and claustrophobic, impossible for young children.

Prisoners are entitled to one visit and three ‘privilege’ visits every four weeks. Privilege visits can be withdrawn from prisoners should they breach prison rules. Child-centred visits are organised by the prison service in association with NIACRO. As in Maghaberry, at Magilligan these are monthly, and 10 fathers are allocated each Saturday extending the opportunity to 40 fathers at any given time. Selection depends on: length of sentence; conviction; absence of restriction orders; release and home leave dates; regime placement; frequency of contact; age of children; completion of the internal parenting programme; agreement with family. The organisation of child-centred visits is consistent with Maghaberry. At Magilligan, families are given the opportunity for a short tour of the prison accompanied by the Family Support Officer, to have some experience of living conditions, education, workshops and recreation facilities.

The most recent inspection of Magilligan¹⁸ noted that the ‘general environment of the prison was marred by too many oppressive fences and wire, as well as old and badly planned buildings, including Nissen huts’. For prisoners, this ‘hampered movement and the lack of cover for getting around a large site in bad weather was a particular problem’. From our observation of visits, this problem extended to families. In poor weather, mothers and children often arrived in the visits hall cold and wet. The Inspectors noted the lack of shelter for families at the gate to the prison. They also commented on the ‘particularly dangerous’ access to the prison caused by the lack of adequate carparking.¹⁹ Whilst the visitors’ portakabin provided support, information and refreshments, the toilet facilities were ‘inadequate’.

2.3 Hydebank Wood

Hydebank Wood Young Offenders’ Centre and Prison (for women) is located in a wooded area five miles south of Belfast, 76 miles west of Derry and 38 miles north of Newry. It is the only prison for young offenders (including children) and, since 2004, one of its units has accommodated all women prisoners in Northern Ireland. Relatively close to Belfast city centre, Hydebank Wood is served by a public bus service and by a Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) bus for families who have difficulty with public transport. However, families from the western and northern towns have a significant journey, often four hours each way. There are five visiting sessions each day, Tuesday to Saturday, and four on Sundays.

18 HMIP/ CJINI (2010) Report of an Announced Inspection of Magilligan Prison 29 March -2 April 2010 p. xi

19 As above p. 64

Visitors arrive at the visitors’ centre which is part of the prison building and is run by NIACRO. In the visitors’ centre, they can have refreshments, use the toilet facilities and get advice from the helpful and well-informed NIACRO staff. From there, visitors make their way into the prison security system. On their first visit, visitors provide photographic identification; they are photographed and have their hand biometrically scanned for identification. Following positive identification and storing any non-permitted items in lockers, visitors enter through an electronically controlled door, walk through a metal detector and receive a body search and a ‘passive drugs test’ (by a prison dog). Following a final check on their details, they enter the visits hall. The hall has 18 fixed tables and chairs and is often crowded and noisy, with a crèche to one side. Women prisoners receive visits at one end of the hall but at the same time as young male prisoners.

Child-centred visits are also offered at Hydebank Wood. They are accommodated in a family room in the new visits centre, equipped to provide a suitable environment for families. Women prisoners can apply to participate in an Extended Visits Scheme to allow up to six hours unsupervised with their children in a mobile unit adjacent to the Ash House Unit. Whilst child-centred visits are currently restricted to prisoners who are parents, the prison service is committed to extending the scheme to include young prisoners who request a family visit. Successful applications for the current scheme are subject to a child protection check with social services. It operates similarly to the schemes at Magilligan and Maghaberry but has additional provision for young parents who have had minimal experience of parenting and who are often fathers of very young children. Mothers or carers who accompany the child are accommodated in the visits area throughout the child-centred visit.

The Independent Monitoring Board’s most recent report noted that while NIACRO staff

‘provided valuable support to prisoners’ visitors on practical and emotional levels’ and family support officers ‘endeavoured to make the child-centred and family visits meaningful and enjoyable’, women prisoners mixed with young male prisoners at visits was ‘another negative feature of Hydebank Wood’s shared site’.²⁰