McDowell accused of censoring prisons inspector

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell was yesterday accused of “censoring” the Inspector of Prisons under new plans.

The Prison Rules published on Wednesday state that the minister can cut parts of any report by the inspector if their publication would be “against the public interest.”

The provision is contained in a section of the draft prison rules which establish the Inspector of Prisons on a statutory basis - something the current inspector Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen has been requesting for years.

“It’s ironic, because the press statement from the Department of Justice very much portrays it as for the first time there is going to be a statutory, independent prison inspector, but when you actually read the rules it’s nothing of the sort,” said Rick Lines of the Irish Penal Reform Trust.

The Prison Rules state: “The minister may exclude a part or parts of a report from publication or from laying before the Houses of the Oireachtas if publication or laying of such part or parts would (a) be against the public interest, or (b) adversely affect the rights of an individual.”

The rules state that the inspector has the power to enter any prison and obtain any prison records for the purposes of inspection.

Mr Lines said this was not enough if the inspector was not in a position to freely comment on his inspection.

“Clearly the way it’s set up creates a situation where the inspector is not at all transparent or independent. The minister has this power under a broad heading of ‘not in the public interest’ to censor anything he might want to.

“The minister is being the arbiter or gatekeeper to decide what is not in the public interest to release.”

A spokeswoman for Mr McDowell said the provision was there to cover situations where the inspector might want to draw to the attention of the minister, but not necessarily to the public, issues relating to security of State.

She said that where a minister excluded a section of a report he had to attach a statement that such an exclusion had been made on publication before the Oireachtas.

Mr Justice Kinlen has been a strong critic of the Department of Justice, describing it as having a “mindset of power and control.”