Sands decided that other prisoners should join the strike at staggered intervals to maximise publicity with prisoners steadily deteriorating successively over several months. The hunger strike centred on five demands: the right not to wear a prison uniform; the right not to do prison work; the right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits; the right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week; full restoration of remission lost through the protest. Sands died on 5 May 1981 in Maze Prison Hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking.