‘Full’ Magilligan a ‘challenging estate’ with ‘H-blocks that go back to the 1970s’

Beverley Wall, director of reducing offending and director general of the Prison Service, told the Stormont Justice committee how the Derry jail was always ‘full’ with 100 prisoners sharing a cell.

“Magilligan prison runs at full capacity all the time now: it runs 400 prisoners, plus 100 doubled up. It is full.

"When you get into doubling up and prisoners spending more time in cells, tensions in the prison environment, between prisoners and between prisoners and staff, increase. We would prefer not to be doubling up at the level that we are doing it,” she declared.

She told the committee a business case on a new kitchen facility was due for completion imminently, in response to a question from DUP MLA Maurice Bradley at a recent briefing.

“You are aware that Magilligan is a very old prison estate. A new kitchen facility is the key issue at Magilligan,” Ms. Wall said,

The director indicated that the outline business case was nearing completion and was expected to be complete ‘by the end of March’.

"The next thing in the plan for Magilligan is additional accommodation blocks. You will be aware that we have H-blocks that go back to the 1970s.

"Halward House is the most modern accommodation there. We are looking at an extension to that block to allow us to house more prisoners in better accommodation on that estate. Magilligan is a challenging estate and our oldest,” she said.

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