Shared cells at new jail ‘contravene EU rules’

The doubling-up of cells in the new multi-million euro Cork prison will contravene international and European rules, according to a social justice group.

Putting two inmates into most cells in Cork also contrasts with the refurbishment of Dublin’s Mountjoy, where all cells will be for one inmate.

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice said the level of doubling up — currently running at 56% across the prison system — was an even more serious issue given the lack of assessment of inmates on committal as to the risk they pose to others.

Fr Peter McVerry, who works at the centre, said the recent introduction of single cells in Mountjoy had made it “much safer” for prison officers and inmates due to a dramatic fall in violence.

In an audit of the first year of the Irish Prison Services’s Three Year Strategic Plan 2012-2015, the centre found that there had been both “imaginative and innovative” developments and “worrying deficiencies”.

The positives include:

* Reductions in overall prisoner numbers and a reduction in overcrowding.

* Significant improvements in conditions in Mountjoy following refurbishment.

* The roll-out of the Community Return Programme, a supervised system of early release.

Issues of concern include:

* The failure to publish strategies on women, young people, sex offenders, and protection prisoners.

* Inadequate resources to implement initiatives such as incentivised sentence management.

* Lack of a standardised cell-sharing risk assessment tool to identify new committals who are violent and pose a risk.

Advocacy officer Eoin Carroll said their report revealed a “good record of achievement” in key areas, such as overcrowding, but also flagged “concerns” regarding progress on commitments, such as the strategies.

The report said the new prison in Cork would have 170 cells, 140 of them double-occupancy, which would contravene international best practice and European prison rules.

At a minimum, the report said single cells should be provided for long-term prisoners (currently 39) and protection prisoners.

Fr McVerry said: “Inadequate resources mean that, in some cases, the benefit of new creative policies, such as Integrated Sentence Management, the Incentivised Regimes and the Community Return Programme, is limited and may even exist more on paper than in reality.

“An effective Integrated Sentence Management policy, for example, would ensure that prisoners are released in a planned way.

“However, too many prisoners are still released at short notice, with no accommodation arranged, no money, no medical card and no supports.”

Launching the report, Pauline McCabe, former Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, paid tribute to Justice Minister Alan Shatter for his prison plans, but said independent oversight and assessment was very important.

* For more see jfcj.ie