Bill would ban solitary confinement over 15 consecutive days

Legislation to ban the use of solitary confinement in Irish prisons for more than 15 consecutive days should be passed before the State’s next attendance at the UN Human Rights committee, the Dáil has heard.

Independents4Change TD Clare Daly highlighted figures released under freedom of information to the Belfast Telegraph, which showed at least nine prisoners in Irish jails have spent more than a year in solitary confinement.

She highlighted the comments of the UN special rapporteur on torture on Irish prisons when he said “those people are suffering what constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and perhaps even torture”.

The figures showed that on January 1st, a total of 51 inmates were held in solitary confinement in Irish prisons for 22 or 23 hours a day, and half were there for more than 100 days.

The Dublin Fingal TD was speaking as she introduced her Prisons (Solitary Confinement) (Amendment) Bill which provides that “no prisoner shall spend more than 15 consecutive days in solitary confinement and that this should be an exceptional measure of last resort”.

Mental illness

The Bill also bans the use of solitary confinement as a punishment, and prohibits the practice for those with mental illness.

Ms Daly said too often prisoners deemed unmanageable were placed in solitary confinement “when what they need in reality is a serious psychological intervention”. The solitary confinement made their condition worse, she added.

Ms Daly said the legislation created a definition of “solitary confinement” for the first time in Irish law.

In the absence of such a definition, those in authority could hide behind words, and she noted that Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald used many different terms including "23-hour lock up", "punishment" and "restricted regimes".

She said the use of a wide variety of terms meant it was difficult to access data or keep tabs on people’s circumstances and “it has potentially serious consequences for prisoners’ human rights”.

Addressing the Minister for Justice, Ms Daly said she was conscious the Government would be before the UN committee next July. “It would be good if we had passed the Bill in advance as it will be one of the issues the Government will be questioned on,” Ms Daly said.