The Five Demands

Probabile minaccia dissidente alla base della decisione di Steve Rodford di lasciare il suo incarico di governatore del carcere di Maghaberry

Nuovo ‘colpo’ per la prigione di Maghaberry che dopo essere stata recentemente definito il più costoso e il peggior carcere del Regno Unito, sta ora per perdere il proprio governatore, Steve Rodford, che avrebbe dovuto guidare una serie di riforme per risollevare le sorti della prigione.
Ufficialmente Rodford abbandona il suo incarico per motivi ‘personali’, ma si fa largo l’ipotesi che sia bersaglio di minacce di provenienza dissidente. In una cella di un detenuto infatti, sarebbero stati ritrovate informazioni sensibili riguardanti il governatore, quali il suo indirizzo di casa e dati inerenti alle immatricolazioni di veicoli di sua proprietà.
A motivare la decisione di Rodford potrebbe non essere stata solo una questione di sicurezza, ma la presa di coscienza dell’incapacità di poter attuare le modifiche necessarie per riformare il regime carcerario.
Rodford lascerà così il proprio posto da meno di 5 mesi dal suo insediamento avvenuto il 20 luglio, dopo la pubblicazione del Pearson Report contenente le raccomandazioni inerenti ai cambiamenti da apportare alla gestione del carcere di Maghaberry.
Il governatore precedente, si era dimesso come conseguenza di un caso di suicidio di un detenuto che avrebbe dovuto trovarsi sotto attenta osservazione del personale carcerario.
Robin Masfield, direttore del NI Prison Service, ha spiegato la decisione di Rodford adducendo motivazioni personali. Come da lui dichiarato, sotto la guida di Rodford il carcere aveva subito un progresso molto importante, anche se nel mese di agosto aveva dovuto fare i conti con il suicidio di John Anthony Deery, ritrovato impiccato.
Fu del governatore dimissionario la decisione di procedere alle operazioni di ricerca durate 4 giorni a Maghaberry, che portarono al ritrovamento di elementi che avrebbero potuto essere utilizzati nella fabbricazione di ordigni.

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Maghaberry Boss Resignation Shock (4 NI)
NI’s Prison Service has again been rocked by bad news as the man who was to lead reform and clear up problems at what was officially labelled the worst and most expensive prison in the UK has quit, writes Carla Liébana.
Maghaberry Prison (pictured), is to lose Steve Rodford, its Governor, who is moving to a new post in England ‘officially’ due to personal and domestic reasons although it is believed he is under dissident republican threat.
The news comes only months after Mr Rodford’s predecessor left after a controversy brought on by the suicide of an inmate and an alleged lack of supervision.
BBC Northern Ireland said today there has been a general threat against prison officers from republican dissidents and that Mr Rodford’s home address was actually found in the cell of an inmate as well as its car registration details.
He is understood to have moved out of his home a number of weeks ago and had been staying at a hotel.
Meanwhile, his wife moved back to England and said that she no longer wanted to live in NI.
However, the BBC’s Vincent Kearney noted that security is not the only reason for Mr Rodford’s move: possibly he felt he wasn’t able to implement the changes he believed necessary to reform the regime in the prison.
It is believed the man with a reputation as a firm governor later became disillusioned with the amount of bureaucracy and red tape in the NI Prison system and felt he wasn’t being given the support and operational independence needed.
Rodford now returns to GB earlier than scheduled – less than five months after taking the job – to Her Majesty’s Prison Service to take up an appointment next year.
He took up the NI post last 20 July after the Pearson Report recommendation about the need of changes in Maghaberry’s jail, which considered it one of the worst and most expensive to run prisons in the UK.
Rodford’s predecessor had left after a controversy by the suicide of an inmate who was supposed to be under observation.
At that time, it was proposed a new team led by a Governor from outside would carry out an urgent improvement programme in the prison, where someof the most dangerous offenders of the country – dissident republican terrorists opposed to the peace process – are held.
Regretting Rodford’s departure, the NI Prison Service Director, Robin Masfield, has explained the move, arguing personal reasons.
He said under Radford’s leadership Maghaberry Prison had undergone an important progress, especially in the positive development of a culture of care and accountability, performance and delivery.
The whole improvement programme included different plans like the introduction of the Supporting Prisoners at Risk procedures or the review of the Search & Standby Team and the proposals for a dedicated search.
Despite these improvements, during these months Rodford had to deal with the prison suicide of John Anthony Deery, who was found hanged in August.
Mr Rodford also ordered the major search of Maghaberry Prison, which lasted four days and ended with the discovery of bomb-making equipment buried in a garden used by inmates.