The hunger strike began when seven female prisoners protested against a government prisoner amnesty program that failed to include most political detainees.

But some former prisoners at the 13-story jail, which normally houses up to 4,400 inmates charged with crimes ranging from shop-lifting to murder, have protested.

But the other prisoners protested loudly about being confined with such shambling, shuffling horrors.

"I didn't take anything this time," the prisoner protested.

If the prisoner protested, if he even blinked, he would be a lot sorrier than he was already.

"I ain't done nothing," the prisoner protested as he was led away to headquarters.

He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status.

The following day, the prison was the scene of a three-and-a-half hour siege when two prisoners protested over visiting rights by barricading themselves in a cell.

Several hundred prisoners, mostly militant leftists, are protesting new jails with small cells, which they say will put them at greater risk of mistreatment by guards.