The prison authorities are still trying to break the resistance of prisoners at Peterhead by singling out ‘subversives’. Justice is systematically denied by these upholders of law and order who have yet to allow any prisoner legal representation before Boards of Visitors as ruled last year by the European Court of Human Rights.
Brutality and injustice are censored. Prisoners, who have fought for and won the right to have FRFI and other progressive literature, receive them with everything about prisons cut out. Letters are frequently suppressed. On 7 September a prisoner was held down by five screws in front of an Assistant Governor and two men in civilian clothing and batoned over the head by another screw. He had complained about the suppression of three letters written to the Scottish Council for Civil Liberties.
Prisoners who have come off the dirty protest are still being kept in indefinite solitary. Scottish prisons Minister An-cram has said that the new units are for ‘subversives’ such as them. These will be control units. Now at the Scottish Prison Officers Conference a delegate who is also a screws’ rep on the Standing Committee on Difficult Prisoners has proposed that the control regime include withdrawal of food from protesting prisoners.
Public protest in support of Peterhead prisoners continues. FRFI and relatives organised a second picket of the Scottish Office in Edinburgh on Friday 28 September calling for:
- an independent inquiry into developments at Peterhead
- abolition of control units
- end to isolation on political grounds of ‘subversives’
- end to censorship of letters and literature
- end to restrictions and harassment on visits
- full rights of legal representation
The picket made its presence felt with militant chants between speeches by a prisoner’s brother Alan Wardlaw, FRFI, Edinburgh Irish Solidarity Committee, Glasgow Irish Freedom Action Committee and Scottish Republican Socialist Party. Gateway Exchange withdrew support at the last minute. This second picket of the Scottish Office involved more prisoners’ relatives and drew support from passers-by who readily signed the petition for the Abolition of Control Units and for an end to Isolation on Political Grounds and donated money to the campaign.
FRFI backs all initiatives for prisoners’ rights and together with the SRSP is supporting a Glasgow Peterhead Prisoners’ Support Committee set up by members of GIFAC, and a picket of the Scottish Office in Glasgow on Saturday 6 October.
Paul McKinlay
FRFI October 1984
