NI: NI (Remission of Sentences) Act (feature)
01 November 1995
On Friday 17 November, 83 political prisoners were released from three of Northern Ireland's prisons (Maze, Maghaberry and Magilligan) after the passing of the Northern Ireland (Remission of Sentences) Act. The new legislation applies to prisoners with fixed term sentences only (and therefore not to life sentence prisoners) and it brings back the 50% remission of sentence taken away by the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989 and subsequently the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1991. The restoration of 50% remission has a sting in the tail, however. Clause 1(2) of the new Act states that those granted 50% remission will be released on licence, a licence which only expires at the two-thirds of sentence point. Furthermore, clause 1(3) allows the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to re-imprison any licensees if it appears to him that "their continued liberty would present a risk to the safety of others or if they are likely to commit further offences" (Hansard, 30 Oct. 1995, col. 21).
50% remission was first introduced as a criminalisation measure in 1976 following the Labour government's implementation of the Gardiner Report (1975). Prior to 1976, prisoners convicted of "scheduled offences" (as defined by the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act) had been designated as "special category" prisoners. As such, prisoners (loyalist and republican) were held in self-governing compounds according to organisational affiliation. The prisoners did not have to work, could wear their own clothes, cook for themselves and were free to organise their own activities. Gardiner argued that the recognition of political prisoners through the introduction of special category status had been a "serious mistake". He made the case that the compound system should be abolished because it encouraged a commitment to terrorism. What was required, therefore, was a regime which would replace the collectivism and autonomy of the compounds with an highly rule-bound, individualised cellular system, under which prisoners would be compelled to do prison work and wear prison uniform. Prisoners would be housed in the rapidly-built H-Blocks at Long Kesh near Belfast and at Magilligan near Derry. These H-Blocks were single-storey, low ceiling, concrete constructions housing up to 100 prisoners, 25 in each leg of the H.
In adopting the Gardiner Committee's report, the Labour government of the day decided that scheduled offences committed after 1 March 1976 would attract sentences to be served in the new H-Blocks and in order to entice conformity with this policy, 50% remission was introduced (with no licence provisions). Enforcement of the Gardiner policy and resistance to criminalisation, finally escalated into the hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981.
Remission policy for fixed sentences remained unchanged until 1989. In the summer of 1988, the government conducted a security review following two IRA attacks on British soldiers. In June of that year, six soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on a "fun run" in Lisburn, the home of the British Army's headquarters. Another eight soldiers lost their lives in a bomb attack on a coach travelling from Belfast International Airport at Aldergrove in August . In a package of measures which included the introduction of the "broadcasting ban" in October, remission was reduced to one third for those given sentences of five years or more for scheduled offences.
The new legislation took only four hours to get through Westminster. During the debate on the Bill, potential Unionist and backbench Conservative opposition was nullified by the Secretary of State's (Sir Patrick Mayhew) presentation of the measures as bringing Northern Ireland into line with remission rules elsewhere within the United Kingdom P as one backbencher put it, "I like to think that the Bill will help to protect and enhance the Union, and that it has nothing at all to do with appeasing murderers, terrorists and bombers". As Opp