Treatment of female prisoners criticised
Mr Shatter confirmed to the Dáil that women were stripped naked for a search and given only towels to cover themselves for an internal body scan.
He was responding to a series of claims in the 2010 report of the Dochas Visiting Committee.
In the first case, the committee claimed a number of women were ordered to strip naked in front of male staff and given only a small number of towels to cover themselves and that some were not adequately covered.
It said the women then had to sit on a special chair, known as the BOSS, which scans internal cavities for contraband. The report said it is unnecessary to be naked for this procedure.
The report states that the way the women were treated was “degrading” and that they were subjected to “unnecessary humiliation”.
In the second incident, in May 2010, a woman was forcibly removed from the prison in circumstances described as “a serious violation of her human rights”.
Mr Shatter said he had been assured by the Irish Prison Service that male officers were not present during the search in November 2010.
He confirmed that use of the BOSS chair does not require being stripped. He said they were given towels.
Mr Shatter said that since the incident the prison governor had arranged supplies of dressing gowns for all future searches and that no other issues have arisen.
Mr Shatter said: “I regard it as unacceptable that towels only and not dressing gowns were made available to prisoners for the search.
“It was also unacceptable that the prisoners were covered by towels only when being scanned by the BOSS chair. This should not have happened.”
He pointed out that the Irish Prison Service said that scissors, screwdrivers, pliers, drugs, mobile phones, a syringe and other contraband were found in the search.
In relation to the second incident, Mr Shatter said the director general of the Irish Prison Service examined the case and identified “procedural failures”.
He added: “I regard the manner in which this prisoner was treated as entirely unacceptable.”
The Irish Penal Reform Trust said the minister’s statement of these “violations of rights” was welcome, but that it was not clear if any staff or management had been held to account.
