PSNI gets clean bill of health from prison visitors’ report

INDEPENDENT visitors made almost 1,000 unannounced checks to police stations in the North on the treatment of people in custody last year.

In its report on the Independent Custody Visiting Scheme, the Northern Ireland Policing Board said 912 visits were made to custody suites in the year to the end of March.

Largely, the Police Service of Northern Ireland was given a clean bill of health. In 766 of the visits (84%), custody visitors found conditions to be “entirely satisfactory” with neither detainees or visitors raising issues of concern. Where visitors did find detention conditions to be unsatisfactory, it was mainly due to the cleanliness of cells or repairs being required, said the report.