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Northern Ireland Prisons
Service
TEXT OF AGREEMENT
ENDING ROE HOUSE PROTEST
Date Created - Thursday 12 August 10 @ 00:00
Maghaberry, 12 August 2010
A. Agreement Reached on Dispute at Roe House in Maghaberry Prison
Following a protest by Republican prisoners in Roe House, the
Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) and the prisoners agreed to
engage in a facilitation process. A Joint Facilitation Group (Irish
Congress of Trade Unions, Creggan Enterprises and Dialogue Advisory
Group) met both parties on a number of occasions over the past
several weeks. The discussions were underpinned at all times by the
following principles:
B. Fundamental Principles
1. Arrangements are predicated on mutual respect;
2. Prisoner and staff safety must not be put at risk;
3. Arrangements should comply with human rights and equality
requirements;
4. Revised arrangements and procedures should be achievable and
sustainable;
5. Staff should be able to carry out their work professionally, free
from harm, intimidation or threat;
6. The security of the establishment should not be diluted; and
7. The arrangements must strengthen public confidence in NIPS.
C. Prisoner Forum
An effective Prisoners’ Forum will be established, in addition to
existing processes for complaints and requests. This should provide
a meaningful mechanism to address issues of mutual concern and is
designed to build trust.
D. Full body searching
1. No random full body searching will take place on the way to
domestic and legal visits and the videolink or from the SSU.
2. No “rubdown” searching internally, within Roe 3 and 4.
3. NIPS will introduce a new search facility and revised search
policy for separated prisoners. The new facility will be located
within the Bush and Roe complex and subject to CCTV and audio
coverage. It will incorporate a combination of the latest
technologies which will remove the requirement for routine full-body
searching of separated prisoners within the prison. The search
process for all separated prisoners entering the separated complex
will be:
• outer clothing, metal objects, belts and shoes removed and passed
through scanner;
• all prisoners undergo scanning by hand held metal detector;
• all prisoners undergo thorough rub-down search; and
• prisoners required to sit on BOSS chair (where outer clothing
contains metal, prisoners may be required to remove this).
4. NIPS reserves the right, in exceptional cases, to require any
prisoner to undergo a full-body search – under existing arrangements
– if:
• there is a positive indication by the technology and the cause
cannot be identified; or
• there is reason through intelligence or suspicion that a prisoner
may be concealing prohibited items on their person.
5. In such cases the full-body search must be authorised and
observed by a supervisor and carried out in a manner which is both
sensitive and dignified. The process of searching will be audited
and monitored to ensure it complies with human rights standards.
E. Movement / association
1. The Prisoner Ombudsman’s report of June 11 2010 recommended that
a review of the separated regime should be included in the current
independent Prison Review and that the review team should examine
the evidence considered by the CJINI/HMCIP when it concluded in 2006
and 2009 that the arrangements for the movement of separated
prisoners “were unnecessarily restrictive”. (The HMCIP finding
states that “there was severely restricted prisoner movement… this
was particularly noticeable on the separated units where, even
within the unit itself, the system of controlled movement meant that
only three prisoners were allowed out an any one time, with no less
than five staff present”). NIPS has fully accepted the Prisoner
Ombudsman’s recommendation.
2. Subject to the fundamental principles set out at section B above,
NIPS’s aim is to move from the existing arrangements towards a more
progressive, supervised free-flow movement system within Roe House,
on a phased basis, as follows:
Phase 1 - commencing August 2010
NIPS will take steps to implement as quickly as possible from the
date of this agreement:
• Association within the recreation room, yard and - when it is
completed - the astro-turf pitch from 0830 until fifteen minutes
before lock-up; and
• Considering the wing – for the purposes of movement –as one unit,
rather than two landings. This will permit a maximum of 6 prisoners
on the landing at any one time, while other prisoners will have
access to kitchen, laundry room, classrooms, showers, ironing and
haircutting room.
Phase 2 – commencing December 2010
The independent Prison Review Team is expected to report on the
Maghaberry regime by December 2010 and, in the light of paragraph E1
above, it is expected that their report will include recommendations
on less restrictive movement arrangements within Roe House. In
addition to implementing the recommendations of the Prisoner
Ombudsman’s report and this agreement, NIPS will take steps to
implement agreed recommendations from the independent Review as
quickly as possible.
Phase 3
Beyond Phase 2 NIPS will continue to review and assess ways to
further progress supervised free flow movement of prisoners. This
will include implementing agreed recommendations – if any –
contained in the final independent Prison Review Report of early
2011.
3. NIPS’s ability to progress, implement and maintain phased changes
to movement procedures towards a lasting solution will be determined
by adherence to the fundamental principles set out in section B
above. Throughout this entire phased process independent assessments
will be conducted by NIPS, JFG and the Minister’s representatives.
F. Next Steps
1. The protest in Roe House will cease immediately;
2. The prisoners commit to refrain from intimidating, threatening,
or harming prison staff in carrying out their duties.
3. Continuous monitoring and evidencing of this agreement commences.
4. NIPS will begin infrastructural change linking the exercise yard
with the astro-turf pitch.
5. NIPS will commence work to design and build an enhanced search
facility for separated prisoners, in line with the proposals at
section D.
6. An initial prisoners’ forum will be convened to address areas of
mutual concern and to resolve grievances through dialogue within
this Forum..
7. The “Separated Compact” will be revised to reflect changes from
this agreement and the Prisoner Ombudsman’s report and also, in due
course, to reflect changes arising from the recommendations in the
independent Prison Review’s report.
8. Review of “full body searching” will report by end of September
2010 and agreed recommendations implemented as soon as possible.
9. Independent Prison Review’s report on the Maghaberry regime by
December 2010.
10. Full compliance of all parties with this agreement is imperative
to building confidence and achieving a lasting solution – one that
delivers a safe, secure and humane prison regime.
##ENDS## |
