9th January 1991
MR PETER BROOKE, M.P.
STORMONT CASTLE,
BELFAST.
Dear Mr Brooke,
I want to congratulate you on the effort you made to increase the number of prisoners, especially Lifers, receiving Christmas parole.
I think this scheme has been a great success and is having an ever increasing effect in the community in bringing families away from support for violence. I firmly believe the more contact the prisoners have with their families and the world, the more anxious they would be to desert the men of violence, get out of prison and live normal lives.
So successful has the scheme been, thanks to you and Mr Steele that I firmly believe that it should be further extended. In addition to the parole at Christmas and August I believe another parole should be given in April (after Easter). This would have a shattering effect on the Provisionals and other such groups. I also recommended that the age for Lifers for getting parole should be brought down to eleven or even ten years served. I would also recommend an increase in the release of Lifers, especially women. (e.g. Mrs Moore from Derry who is in Maghaberry).
I am anxious to have the parole system for long-term prisoners improved, i.e. prisoners serving from six years to twenty years. They should be allowed parole within the last eighteen months to 2-3 years depending on the length of the sentence. I think this is very important for their families and it would help good behaviour within the prison. Again, compassionate parole should be extended to include grandparents, uncles, aunts and parents-in-law.
To the best of my knowledge there was a direct link between the news of 144 lifers being released on parole and three day cease-fire of the Provisionals at Christmas. I think it might be possible through pressure from these families and the prisoners to have three cease-fires corresponding to Christmas, April and August paroles. I think the possibility of bringing about a permanent cease-fire is closely linked with pardons and the release of prisoners. If it was conveyed through some suitable persons, who were trusted by both sides, that there would be an accelerated release of prisoners, if paramilitary groups ceased violence and allowed all their “prisoners” to return i.e. Informers, Hoods, Petty Criminals of one kind or another, people who fell foul of the paramilitaries, if all these were allowed to return to their homes, I take it that the Government would also allow the majority of persons who fled across the Border at the time of Internment and the ill-treatment that went with it, to return and live with their families in their own homes and neighbourhoods.
The whole power of this suggestion lies in the strength of the family and the women folk. These war wearied people are anxious to have normal family life again. They have the power, and nobody else has to stop the violence in root and branch. They must also feel that their families are secure from discrimination and ill-treatment by the UDR and the British Army and that they will get fair treatment in respect of employment and promotion.
I feel very strongly that the possibilities are there and everything does depend on the paroles and the release of prisoners and promises of more and more of each. I can see no other practical way of ending the violence quickly and transforming the families into persons of trust and hope.
I beg you to give some thought to these ideas of mine and I hope to see you sometime to discuss these ideas.
With nest wishes for 1991.
Yours sincerely,
Rev. Denis Faul.
