Inside UK's most dangerous prison where 'not even visitors are safe'

17 October 2023 , 18:50

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Maghaberry Prison has been dubbed the UK's 'most dangerous' (Image: PA)

Viewers can take a look inside one of the most dangerous prisons which houses brutal killers and sex offenders. Maghaberry Prison is Northern Ireland’s only high security jail - described as the most dangerous prison ever inspected by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons in England and Wales in 2015.

Fast forward seven years and Jailed: Inside Maghaberry Prison will be shown on BBC Two tonight (Oct 17) at 10pm. Presenter Stephen Nolan is given unprecedented access to HMP Maghaberry, one of the UK’s most high-security jails, where he talks to prisoners in their cells and investigates the pressures facing staff and the prison system. Even as northern Irish journalist Nolan enters the prison grounds he’s greeted by inmates shouting obscenities at him from their cell windows.

Maghaberry Prison is the only high security jail in Northern Ireland (PA)

The programme looks at whether changes have been implemented since the report by Nick Hardwick and Brendan McGuigan, chief inspector of Criminal Justice Northern Ireland, dubbed Maghaberry Prison as the most dangerous prison they’d ever been to. Back then corruption and drugs were rife and staff described the notorious prison as a ‘powder keg prison with a fuse that’s burning down fast’.

“The jail is as dangerous as ever and it’s getting worse. This place is about to blow and we can do nothing to stop it," a source told Belfast live back in 2016. "The prison officers are not in charge, the bosses are not in control - the situation is controlling us and the prisoners are controlling the situation,” the source added.

“It’s mental. Every day I can feel it. It’s dangerous and volatile and it’s getting worse very quickly. No one is safe at Maghaberry; the staff are constantly in danger and visitors are not even safe to be here.”

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Maghaberry prison near Lisburn, County Antrim, has been branded 'unsafe and unstable' (PA)

In June 2023, the prison reopened an old block to deal with the prisoner total which hit a record high of 1,240, up from 800 five years ago. Following an inspection in 2022, Head of the Prison Service, Ronnie Armour, said there is currently a huge pressure on prison staff. “The Chief Inspector has rightly identified the availability of drugs as a priority concern and since the inspection some eight months ago we have introduced x-ray body scanners at Maghaberry.

"Like our hospitals, ambulance service, police and other frontline services, the current demands placed on prison officers is unprecedented," he said. “We are not complacent about the issues Inspectors have raised, indeed we are determined to address them, however it is important to recognise that due to the context in which we are operating in, this is likely to be the case for some time to come.”

Jailed: Inside Maghaberry Prison is on BBC Two tonight (Oct 17) at 10pm

Jackie Annett