THE North's chief probation officer, Ms Breidge Gadd, has severely criticised the British government's current policy and practice on "non British prisoners". Ms Gadd said the government had shown an extraordinary lack of generosity in some cases despite commitments made before the ceasefire.
Speaking at a meeting of the Irish Association in Dublin yesterday, Ms Gadd, who resigned from the Life Sentence Review Board after the release of Private Lee Clegg, also claimed the majority of released republican and loyalist prisoners had acted as a positive force in their communities, particularly towards the peace process.
She called for the establishment of a peace commission, similar to the Mitchell body on decommissioning, which would involve all sides and address the issues that would lead to peace.
The breakdown in the ceasefire had led to fear - "and fear is not a good bedfellow with trust".
Her experiences as a probation officer led her to believe that many prisoners "who have become involved in committing some of the most heinous crimes in Northern Ireland" would never have had a criminal record or ended up in prison but for the violence.
"While it was right that the government treated murder as murder, the criminalisation of these people and the determination to treat them as ordinary criminals may at times have made the problem worse", said Ms Gadd.
She found no evidence that the bulk of the loyalist or republican paramilitaries were involved in gangster type activity such as drug dealing.
In view of the British government's prior commitment to be generous and imaginative" in the event of a ceasefire, she found examples of an extraordinary lack of generosity. She asked if the issue of prisoners would be handled differently if there was another ceasefire.
Ms Gadd identified the "set of Ps" as a way forward - prisoners, policing and pluralism. The provision of jobs was also critical. After the ceasefire, three armies had been "stood down" - loyalist, republican and the combined forces of the RUC and British army, she said.
No matter - how distasteful - it might sound, loyalist and republican paramilitaries were left without a role, while the British army was confined to barracks for much of the time.
"What we must accept, even though it is a painful notion, is that exclusion does not work in Northern Ireland nor will it work - in the future. We tried it for 25 years but they did not go away and in many cases their support grew in their local communities", Ms Gadd added.
People in Northern Ireland and Britain were not good at dealing with dissent. The first line of defence was exclusion.
"We are talking about including people, about legitimising dissent", she added.
Neither could "terrorism" be defeated with the weapons of war. Attempts to defeat it in such a way merely bred more young men and women to the civil conflict "that is not entirely of their making".
Released prisoners had returned to areas of most social deprivation and it was "a surprise" how many of them were prepared to compromise on the future of Northern Ireland.
A combination of "education and ageing" moulded the prisoners and the majority of "lifers" left jail with impressive degrees.
"The lifers have come out and quietly gone off into business or returned to study or become interested in politics. In fact, they have led a lot of cross community and North South initiatives", she said.