Padded cells ‘sign of failing prisons’

MORE THAN 600 prisoners end up in padded cells each year in this country, it was claimed yesterday.

Fine Gael deputy health spokesperson Dan Neville called for a mental health court system to be established to remove mentally ill offenders from the criminal justice system.

His calls follow the publication of a major research project which found that 60% of female prisoners and 35% of male prisoners had a history of mental illness.

The study, the first of its type to be carried out in Irish prisons, was conducted by a teams of psychiatrists, led by Dr Harry Kennedy, the head of the Central Mental Hospital.

The research, published in yesterday’s Irish Examiner, said prisons were “psychiatric waiting rooms”.

“Over 600 prisoners each year end up in padded cells as they are in danger of taking their own lives,” said Mr Neville.

“We had a description of one unfortunate prisoner in the last report of the Inspector of Prisons who told of an inmate who was ‘28 days in a padded cell screaming his head off and urinating and defecating all over the place’. This prisoner was not seen by any doctor.”

The Irish Penal Reform Trust is involved in court action against the State on behalf of mentally ill prisoners kept in padded cells.

Last September, the High Court ruled the IPRT was entitled to represent mentally ill prisoners in legal proceedings against the State.

The IPRT is seeking a declaration from the courts that detaining mentally ill prisoners in padded cells breaches their constitutional rights and is contrary to human rights obligations.

IPRT chairwoman and barrister Claire Hamilton yesterday said the State was appealing the High Court ruling and expected the case to be heard within a year.

If the Supreme Court rules with the High Court, the IPRT will pursue the substantive case. If that proves successful, possibly thousands of prisoners could sue the State.

IPRT director Rick Lines said the research confirmed the “continuing warehousing of mental illness in prisons” and the State’s failure to provide an alternative.

“It’s not a new problem and is not unique to Ireland,” he said.

“There needs to be broader thinking linking up health and criminal justice, not just in the area of mental health but also drug treatment.

“The departments of health and justice don’t seem to talk to each other. When they do, criminal justice concerns seem to override health.”

In a separate development yesterday, it emerged the State had agreed to pay an inmate €20,000 in compensation for locking him in a padded cell in Mountjoy Prison for 79 days in a row.