Maghaberry authorities punishing prisoners for complaints

Posted by Jim on May 23, 2015

Republican political prisoners at Maghaberry jail have condemned
“aggressive” punishment procedures and unofficial reprisal actions by
the prison authorities which they said are causing upheaval throughout
Maghaberry.

Among the tactics the authorities are accused of using are sleep
disruption and deprivation.

In a statement, the prisoners of landing 4 in Roe House at the jail said
the abuses were in response to their peaceful efforts to challenge
efforts to treat them as criminals.

“We have engaged the Prisoner Ombudsman and the jail’s internal
complaints system, as well as pursuing other internal and external
avenues. We have challenged the Ombudsman’s Office on its
ineffectiveness, while simultaneously continually challenging screws
[warders] and officials also in this regard. The jail has also been
challenged on its failure to provide resources to RPPs which are readily
available in other areas of the jail site.

“This has been a source of great frustration to the jail administration
and, in response; they have employed a variety of repressive measures.
Disturbingly, they have used a select number of notorious individuals on
the landings and on night guard-duty to engage in obstructive,
belligerent behaviour including sleep disruption and deprivation. When
RPPs have challenged those engaged in this behaviour the jail
administration has responded by contriving charges against us under
prison rules.”

These charges are designed to intimidate and distract at a time when the
jail had failed to honour its own so-called ‘stocktake’ proposal to
allow six prisoners onto the landings at a time, rather than the current
four, they said.

“These charges and manufactured ‘alarm incidents’ will undoubtedly be
used by the jail administration to present Roe House as an intimidating
environment and, in turn, as an excuse for failing to hold to their own
‘Stocktake’.”

The prisoners also accused the English governor, Malcolm Swarbrick, of
overseeing a number of “fabricated” PSNI charges, alarm incidents and
the beating of republican prisoners.

“All attempts at resolving potential confrontational situations is met
with threats of ‘charges’, lock-downs and the menacing use of riot
Squads along with Alsatian dogs,” they said.

“Swarbrick has engineered the multiple alarm incidents over recent
months which have culminated in Republican prisoners being beaten, the
PSNI arrests, and the deliberate reinstatement of provocative measures.”

The response by the prison authorities had also affected non-political
prisoners to the point where large parts of Maghaberry jail were
“recently wrecked and then set on fire as a protest”.

“Attempts by the jail administration to downplay, and indeed cover up,
recent serious events will not be allowed to go unnoticed regardless of
such endeavours to censor.”