Published Friday, 06 August 2010
Inmates at the high-security facility on the outskirts of Lisburn are understood to have been pouring excrement onto the cell block landing in the ongoing protest, forcing the Northern Ireland Prison Service to issue protective clothing to staff.
It is part of a long-running dispute over conditions within the jail and visiting rights.
Mr Adams told UTV that members of the party has visited the prison "to explore conditions and to meet with the prisoners".
He added: "We have made representations to the Minister of Justice and to the appropriate officials with responsibility for the prison.
"I support the families of those prisoners and support the prisoners' right to be treated properly and I do think they have grievances that need to be dealt with."
A spokesman for the prisoners' families, Gerry Hodgins, said the protesters are demanding political status and access to legal representation.
"A prison will only work when there is co-operation between the prisoners and the prison staff," he said.
"There is no co-operation in that prison at the minute - it is being run in a very vindictive and punitive manner."
But Finlay Spratt from the Prison Officers' Association said the inmates just wanted control of the jail.
"It's down to this old argument about who runs the prisons - is it prisoners or is it the authorities?" he said.
"The prisoners want to run the prison. Well, that's not what prison is for."
'Dirty protests' were previously staged during the Troubles, when republican prisoners took the action ahead of hunger strikes in 1981.