Editing HM Prison Maze (section)

==Background==
[[File:Compound 19.JPG|thumb|right|The entrance to Compound 19]]

Following the introduction of [[internment]] in 1971, [[Operation Demetrius]] was implemented by the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) and [[British Army]] with raids for 452 suspects on 9 August 1971. The RUC and army arrested 342 [[Irish nationalist]]s, but key [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) members had been tipped off and 104 of those arrested were released when it emerged they had no paramilitary connections.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpgmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 |page=126 |title=The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace |isbn=9781784975388 |last1=Coogan |first1=Tim Pat |date=16 December 2015 |publisher=Head of Zeus |access-date=2 October 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926145045/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Troubles/vpgmCwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA126&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> Those behind Operation Demetrius were accused of bungling  the raids by arresting many of the wrong people and using out-of-date information. Following nationalist protests, some [[Ulster loyalism|Ulster loyalists]] were also arrested. By 1972, there were 924 internees and by the end of internment on 5 December 1975, 1,981 people had been detained; 1,874 (94.6%) of whom were [[Irish Catholics|Catholic/Irish nationalist]] and 107 (5.4%) [[Ulster Protestant]]s/loyalists.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/intern/sum.htm|title=CAIN: Events: Internment: Summary of events|website=cain.ulster.ac.uk|access-date=30 June 2021|archive-date=28 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828025847/https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/intern/sum.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Initially, the internees were housed with different paramilitary groups separated from each other, in [[Nissen hut]]s at a disused RAF airfield that became the [[Long Kesh Detention Centre]]. The internees and their supporters agitated for improvements in their conditions and status; they saw themselves as [[political prisoner]]s rather than common criminals. In July 1972, the [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]], [[William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw|William Whitelaw]] introduced [[Special Category Status]] for those sentenced for crimes relating to the civil violence. There were 1,100 Special Category Status prisoners at that time.

Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary-linked prisoners gave them the same privileges previously available only to internees. These privileges included free association between prisoners, extra visits, food parcels, and the right to wear their own clothes rather than prison uniforms.<ref>Crawford, Colin (1979), ''Long Kesh: an alternative perspective''.</ref>

However, Special Category Status was short-lived. As part of a new British policy of "[[Criminalization|criminalisation]]" and coinciding with the end of internment, the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, [[Merlyn Rees]], ended Special Category Status from 1 March 1976. Those convicted of "scheduled terrorist offences" after that date were housed in the eight new "H-Blocks" that had been constructed at Long Kesh, now officially named Her Majesty's Prison Maze (HMP Maze). Existing prisoners remained in separate compounds and retained their Special Category Status with the last prisoner to hold this status being released in 1986. Some prisoners changed from being Special Category Status prisoners to being common criminals. [[Brendan Hughes]], an IRA prisoner, had been imprisoned with Special Category Status in Cage 11, but was alleged to have been involved in a fight with warders. He was taken to court and convicted then returned to the jail as a common prisoner and incarcerated in the H-Blocks as an ordinary prisoner, all within the space of several hours.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HRGPgAACAAJ |title = Nothing but an Unfinished Song: The Life and Times of Bobby Sands|isbn = 9781560258889|last1 = O'Hearn|first1 = Denis|date = 8 December 2006| publisher=PublicAffairs }}</ref>

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