THE GOVERNMENT is accused of breaching the human rights of prisoners, asylum seekers and children in a report to be presented to the United Nations this week.
The report warns of “real concerns about the safe and humane treatment of prisoners” due to serious overcrowding in some old and dilapidated prisons. It says the prison population has doubled since 1997, totalling 4,541 prisoners on January 25th last. Overcrowding is also causing increased levels of inter-prisoner violence in Irish prisons, says the report.
Joint shadow report of Ireland under the UN convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentwas written by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the Irish Penal Reform Trust. They will present the report to the UN committee against torture on Friday as part of a UN monitoring process, which for the first time is evaluating Ireland's record on torture and ill-treatment.
A Government delegation led by secretary general of the Department of Justice Seán Aylward will answer questions about the State’s record at public hearings on May 23rd and 24th in Geneva.
The shadow report criticises the detention conditions for prisoners, children and immigrants in the State. It also makes a wide range of suggestions to enable Ireland meet its human rights obligations under various UN treaties.
The report pinpoints the lack of in-cell sanitation in a quarter of prison cells and the widespread use of solitary confinement cells due, in part, to inter-prisoner violence as major issues of concern.
It says “special cells”, which are used to house prisoners placed on protection, may be necessary but should be adapted for use. It also notes the Inspector of Prisons found a quarter of the cells were being used for “management purposes” in 2010 rather than to accommodate prisoners’ wishes.
The report says some prisoners are being kept in solitary confinement for more than a year. It also criticises the practice of imprisoning people with severe psychiatric disorders, who cannot be properly cared for in a prison setting.
The report strongly criticises the Government for continuing to detain juveniles in St Patrick’s Institution in Dublin, which is run on a penal model. It says there is still no clear timeline for transfer to detention schools and notes that a quarter of all children in St Patrick’s in 2009 requested to be put on protection because they had fears for their personal safety.
The Government’s treatment of asylum seekers is condemned in the report, which says Ireland currently has the lowest acceptance rate of asylum seekers in the EU.
The report recommends the Government implement all the recommendations made by the Ryan Report into child abuse, including the provision of aftercare services to children leaving State care.
It also calls on the State to ban all forms of corporal punishment.
JOINT SHADOW REPORT: KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
* Placement of mentally ill individuals in Irish prisons should cease.
* Independent prison complaints system should be set up.
* All measures to reduce overcrowding should be employed and the practice of “slopping out” should be stopped.
* Imprisonment of children at St Patrick’s Institution must end immediately.
* Aftercare services should be made available to all children leaving care in all instances where recommended by a social worker.
* The State should put in place an independent system to investigate deaths in prison.
* Introduce a legal ban to eliminate corporal punishment.
Source: Joint shadow report of Ireland under the UN convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.