Separation is no cheap option

By Brian Rowan
BBC Northern Ireland security editor

The stench on the landing of Maghaberry Prison's B Wing was evidence of the recent dirty protest by republican dissidents - a protest in which prisoners smeared their cells with excrement.

Locking up at Maghaberry prison

This is Bush House, inside the top security jail in County Antrim, where the authorities are getting ready to separate republican and loyalist inmates.

Getting ready means spending millions of pounds on physical security measures and meeting the cost of extra staffing.

Separation - it used to be called segregation in the old Maze Prison - does not come cheaply.

Bush House has 100 cells which have been emptied as the jail authorities prepare to turn their regime upside down.

Maghaberry had prided itself on being an "integrated" prison - a jail in which all types of prisoners were held together.

This was very different from the Maze, where the IRA, the INLA and the loyalist groups had their own wings and the authorities had little or no control.

We are told that separation at Maghaberry will be very different from segregation in the Maze. But will it?

According to Peter Russell, the director general of the prison service, it will. But he knows the prisoner mentality and he knows that once one concession is given then another will be pursued.

Russell may have no intention of "sub contracting" the control of Maghaberry from the prison staff to paramilitary prisoners, but staying in charge will not be easy.

The jail landing at Maghaberry prison

That is why £7m is going to be spent tightening security in the jail's Bush and Roe Houses and why another £5m - £7m is going to be spent on extra staff and training.

Holding the Maghaberry line will be easier said than done.

The so-called "dirty protest" by dissident republicans, the threat of a hunger strike and clashes between republicans and loyalists inside the jail led to a review of prison safety.

That review - led by former controller of prisons John Steele - produced the recommendation to separate the two groups of inmates.

Doing that is going to take some time. It could be late this year or the beginning of next before the report's proposals are fully implemented.

And it will be at that point that the real test of authority could begin behind the bars of Maghaberry.

The Maze may be closed now, but the memories of those days of paramilitary dominance of the wings are still fresh.

Privately, quietly, there are those who will tell you that Maghaberry could become the next prison battleground.

We are being told now that cells will be locked, wings will be secure and prison staff will be in full control.

Putting it to the test

But the proposed new system has not yet been put to the test.

That may be some weeks - even months - away.

We could then see the various paramilitary groups move to build on the concession already won.

That is the familiar pattern of prison life in Northern Ireland.

Inside Maghaberry, millions of pounds are being spent in preparation for separation, and millions more have been spent on enhancing security at the homes of hundreds of prison officers.

Bush House was a quiet place when I was shown inside it on Wednesday, but it will be a very different place when it takes onto its wings the jail's paramilitary prisoners.

Only then will the real battle for control begin. The tough talking of the prison authorities may suggest they are ready for the fight.

But are they?

A protest from a small group of prisoners has already won them a significant concession and they will be in the mood to push for more.