Following the third death in custody this month alone, Workers Party representative Gemma Weir  has called on the NI Executive, the Justice Minister and management at Maghaberry to hold a crisis meeting to address the immediate issues and plan for the longer term.

‘ My sympathy goes to the family and friends of the prisoner who has died. While the exact cause of death has yet to be confirmed the fact that this is the third prisoner this month to die in custody is unacceptable and ultimately inexcusable’, Gemma said

‘Clearly there is a major crisis in our prison service and this has to be addressed and resolved. It is never acceptable to respond  with platitudes like  ‘we are on a learning curve’, and ‘lessons have been learnt’ . Lives are being lost – systematically lost by a system which is quite clearly not fit for purpose through a combination of culture, resourcing and inappropriate structuring’, Gemma said

I am calling on the NI Executive to convene an emergency summit to make Maghaberry immediately safer and to to publicly announce their plans to deal wi this horrendous sutiation short and long term’, concluded Gemma