NEW training for prison officers, and a code of discipline under which staff can be dismissed for misconduct, should improve conditions for prisoners, according to the Government.
The measures are detailed in the Government's final response to a European group which expressed concern about the welfare of Irish prisoners and found some officers had a "propensity to ill treat prisoners".
A delegation from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Punishment (CPT) visited Ireland three years ago.
The Government published an interim response to its findings last December when the CPT report was made public. The CPT, established by the Council of Europe, examines conditions in police cells as well as in prisons.
The Government's final report promises improvement in prisons and Garda stations, and stresses the benefits of a new code of conduct for prison officers which comes into force on October 1st. Officers have also received special "control and restraint" training.
Innovations include the introduction of 50 telephones for the 600 prisoners at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, compared with the seven now available. Eventually, it says, there could be 80 telephones for prisoners at the jail.
At present a prisoner - normally allowed one call a week - must wait until one of seven telephones becomes free, and while a staff member dials an approved number. Under the new system expected to be in place by the end of the year, prisoners will be issued with pre programmed telephone cards which will dial only specified numbers, and limit the length of the call. They will be able to dial organisations such as the Samaritans for no charge.
The Government's response may leave the CPT dissatisfied as a number of the group's recommendations have not been followed.
In April, the CPT wrote to the Department of Justice denying that the "general drift" of its initial report suggested widespread ill treatment of prisoners, as the Government's first response claimed. The CPT said the tenor of its report was positive, and the delegation had noted "that the great majority of prison officers were attempting to deal in a humane manner with prisoners in their charge".
However, the letter added that the CPT was unhappy with the Government's response to its view of certain prison officers working at Mountjoy and Limerick prisons, who were considered to have "a propensity to ill treat prisoners".
Most, if not all, of the officers concerned were still working at the prisons and "little or no action would appear to have been taken against them", the CPT wrote.
The Government's response indicates it does not plan specific action against the officers - some of whom were accused of having punched and kicked prisoners - but is relying on the new code of discipline to deal with any recurrence. The governors of both prisons have also formally reminded staff that ill treatment of prisoners is unacceptable.
The new code sets out clearly the offences which constitute misconduct by a staff member, as well as the formal procedures for dealing with disciplinary matters.
The CPT also sought assurances that Unit D at Cork Prison would not be used to hold prisoners in solitary confinement for long periods as a punishment. The Government says: "Prisoners are not held in this unit as a means of punishment. Their stay in Unit D is normally for relatively short periods, generally two months or less." This unit is for "prisoners who are particularly disruptive or unruly and who provide a threat to good order".
During a visit to Finglas Garda station in 1993 the CPT found batons, real and replica guns, hunting knives and a cosh in detectives' lockers, items which the gardai said were being used as evidence.
The Government document says the Commissioner has now ordered that gardai should not keep personal property other than that required for duty in Garda stations, and they should record any weapons seized in the station books and their personal notebooks.