Jail governor to hand over the keys inside a few weeks

"Everything you do in a prison it's about people, and it's about how you treat people as human beings. I would never have thought myself as a liberal but I am of the belief that if you treat people as human beings with decency, by and large you get the decency back. That's what my staff do. It's first name terms with each other and with a lot of prisoners.

"Not everyone is perfect. Not every prisoner is perfect. We don't put a lot of focus on what people are in here for. Prisoners are in as punishment not for punishment, they've lost their freedom.

"If someone comes in here to do time for robbing your house, I have to make sure that when they leave they don't burgle mine. It's a simplistic model. I always think as a Governor, if I was in that position what would I do, what is the impact of that decision and personalise that. Would you like your father to be in here and treated badly? Would you like your father to work in a prison and be the subject of a threat or assault? Or intimidation by violent prisoners. Yes there are people in prison who are there because they have been violent outside, because they are druggies, but it's about people being treated properly and people feeling as if they.That's the simplistic model.

"The staff in the north west and the people of the north west have a 'can-do' attitude. Now I'll says something I've said before. I believe that if Magilligan was lifted and moved south of Ballymena towards Belfast it would be contaminated by the Belfast attitude. Cause Magilligan staff have a 'can-do' attitude, they are prepared to do things and do things right. And that's been recognised.

"If I took you too Foyleview their walls are plastered with letters of thanks. Those letters link usinto the community very much. Currently we have three or four prisoners working for St Columb's Cathedral in Derry doing a refurbishment. I have four prisoners living in Benburb Priory in Newry doing refurbishment work. I have two mini buses going out of here each morning two prisoners driving, each with anything up to seven or eight prisoners going out to work each day to work in community. Mountsandel Care Home and Portrush sea cadets.

"I decided that I was going to retire this year but I didn't know when. Ok anyone can say you make a decision and away when you're a Governor you can't just get up and walk out in the middle of things. I've worked with my management team to try and hold the prison in this area to try and prove that we can do something, cause there's something magic about this place.

"I came here in September 2006. I worked at Michelin Tyre Company, in Mallusk for 14 years. After they I was offered a job in Burnley and Stoke, but I don't like big companies. The there was a job advertised for external recruitment for the prison service for governor grades and I applied for it, got an interview and then the job. The best job in the world.

"My very first posting was at the Maze. I joined the service the very first day after the Maze escape. I know nothing about hunger strikes, thank goodness I wasn't at the Maze when the escape happened but I joined the day after. The atmosphere of the service was very, very low, morale was low. I was the Assistant Governor working there at 8-6, 8-7 and 8-8 jail. I left there in 1986 and transferred to Magilligan as Assistant Governor. I worked here for about three years. I then transferred to the Prison Service College as deputy vice-principal in terms of staff training, on promotion. From there I went to Belfast prison as third in charge so out of it all i certainly got good experience. Then I went back the college as principal and from there I went t back to headquarters as Deputy Director of Operations. I then decommissioned the maze and Belfast prison in 18 months and legally handed them over to the Department for Finance and Personnel.

"I had to decommission two prisons with no contract, no money, no contractors. I used three staff in headquarters, one from ex-finance plus six prisoners and we cleared that place. And then from there I went back to headquarters as Deputy Director of Office and started here as Governor in 2006.

"This is not about Magilligan Prison, it's about the North West economy. I have 427 staff here and I've also got 470 prisoners, so this is a small Ulster town. Now we need things like bread, milk, meat and fruit. We need services, so the prison feed in and feed money into the local economy.

"There are plans for a new prison. Now it's the Minister's decision and we hope that because we've done all the ground work, he will decide that it will come here. We have those blocks with no in cell sanitation. We have prisoners who are electronically unlocked to go to the toilet, that means when you get one prisoner out, that somebody else can't get out until he comes back in again. That's not acceptable in this day and age.

"I find as a governor people will want to push me to extremes. Because of their own agenda and if you are always working on extremes, people will get a sense of inequality and unfairness. You need to get the middle ground and to me that is the key.

"In January 2007 I had a prisoner who had cancer and asbestos. He had an open wound on his throat that bled every morning. He got fed through it and helped him to breathe. I as told he was going to die in about three or four weeks, there's no way I am going to let someone die in prison so we put child protection procedures in and we moved him to the Causeway hospital. Within ten days he had died.

"When you work in a prison as a Governor you always need plans for the worst case scenario. I have plans here now for the worst case scenario. That's the nuts and bolts of your business.

"One of the most rewarding things is having inspection teams in here who have damned other prisons in the UK.

They've came in here - damned my buildings but have said: 'but you have something magic here Tom, something very, very special.'

"There come sa point when you feel that you have taken the prison as far as you can. Now it's time for someone with renewed energy to step in and take it in another direction. That time has come for me."