Prison Service's Mistakes Continue

by William McKee

William McKee is the author of the bestselling book "Governor: Inside the Maze"

William has spent 27 years working in the prison service in Northern Ireland and England,was the Senior Governor in charge of the Maze Prison on 27 December 1997, the day that LVF Godfather Billy Wright was murdered. He is a regular columnist for The Irish Book Review

The Northern Ireland Prison Service has left itself open for more criticism following yet another prisoner absconding while on home leave. The prisoner concerned is a convicted murderer, Jonathan Neill who failed to return from a period of home leave. This is not the first time that this particular inmate has committed this home leave offence. He had been released on licence in 2006 but had been returned to prison for breaching the conditions of his parole.

The Prison Service received further criticism for the unacceptable delay in informing the public of the absconding of such a dangerous inmate. This of course is not the first convicted murdered to break the rules and force his return to custody? Another life sentenced prisoner Kenneth Callaghan has broken his conditions of his release on at least two occasions and yet again will be considered for further release. Unbelievably there have been almost 400 prisoners who have breached their conditions from 2001. Calls were made today from a senior level in government for a root and branch review of the home leave policy for prisoners as there is genuine concern that it is only a matter of time until a serious offence is perpetrated from one of these extremely dangerous individuals.

A member of the Policing Board was quoted as saying, “There is clear evidence that this policy should be reviewed. This case raises serious concerns about the level of risk assessment being carried out on inmates seeking pre-release on compassionate grounds. This is a prisoner who has previously broken terms of his licence and who police are warning the public not to approach, so why was he deemed to be fit for release? I think that any prisoner who is categorised as posing a threat to the public and who is still released on a pre-release scheme should be electronically tagged. This is about keeping the public safe.”

Surely the time has come for a ‘Patten type report’ (as carried out to assess the failings of the Police Service in Northern Ireland) is also applied to the Prison Service with the clear purpose of identifying and addressing the numerous failings that have come to light especially in recent times. The ‘ostrich syndrome’ of bearing their heads in the sands that appears to exist within the senior management of the service must not be permitted to continue and if the current people in charge are deemed ‘not fit for purpose’ then they must be replaced with a quality of leadership that will have the support of the rank and file officer and perhaps more importantly that of the tax-paying public.