Mountjoy separation unit has ‘air of neglect’
The Inspector of Prisons also said the continuing detention of a small number of 17-year-olds on remand in St Patrick’s Institution was “certainly inhumane”.
In a report on the Mountjoy Prison Campus, retired judge Michael Reilly praised the refurbishment of the main building and said the atmosphere there had “changed dramatically”.
However, he said the separation unit had been “forgotten” and had a “general air of neglect and decrepitude”.
Following a six-month probe, he said: “My investigation of the separation unit has uncovered deficiencies, bad practice, overcrowding, lack of regimes and services which I considered un-acceptable.”
The unit has 31 cells, with in-cell toilets. The judge said they were suitable for two inmates if they had enough activities to occupy themselves.
He said the inmates had screened visits in a room where acoustics were bad, compared to open visits in the main building. He said recreational amenities were “virtually non-existent”. Prisoners got to the yard for one hour a day and the gym once or twice a week.
“Other than that they walked around the landings, which are small,” he said.
He said there was “virtually no education” and what little was done was in the corner of a busy landing.
Some toilets did not flush and many cell windows were broken. He said “a worrying feature was discarded razors in an old toilet”, which he said posed a danger to staff and inmates if fashioned into weapons.
He said the unit was “dirty”, with rubbish on the floors, stairwells, and landings.
Mr Reilly was highly critical of two recreation rooms that had been turned into dormitory-style cells, with four bunks in each. He said each room had a fixed CCTV camera.
He said prisoners had been asked to sign a waiver to acknowledge they were aware of the cameras, but not all had done so. Despite this they were operational, which he said was “an unacceptable invasion” of privacy. He said these rooms were “filthy” and that some prisoners were eating on the floor and that the toilet in one room was broken.
He wrote to Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald telling her the separation unit had to close. This was supposed to have happened by the end of August, but Ms Fitzgerald yesterday said prison bosses had told her it would happen “shortly”.
The Inspector of Prisons has documented "disturbing" findings in many prison deaths, including deficient management structures, failures to check vulnerable inmates and inadequate risk assessment before release.
Retired judge Michael Reilly investigated 34 deaths between January 2012 and June 2014.
These comprised 15 deaths in prison or on prison hospital visits and 19 deaths on temporary release.
In a report published yesterday, he said he had completed investigations into 27 of the deaths.
He said he was “particularly concerned” with those cases involving no or deficient management structures relating to the checking of prisoners during periods of lock down.
Other failures include:
- Prisoners on special observation not checked in accordance with procedures;
- Appropriate risk assessment not carried out before prisoners are given temporary release;
- Incomplete records, including medical records;
- Inability to determine if psychiatric services were provided to prisoners.
Mr Reilly referenced one case: “A prisoner, whose vulnerability in prison and in the community was known to all services and who should have been supervised in the community post his release, was released on temporary release without formal arrangements being in place for such supervision.”
He said there were “obligations” on prison management to ensure proper assessments were carried out prior to release.
He criticised the standard of statements supplied to him by prison officers in some fatalities.
“In a number of my investigations, I have found such statements to be minimal in content, misleading and in certain cases inaccurate,” said Mr Reilly.
Commenting on the report, Deirdre Malone of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said: “The Inspector of Prisons clearly identifies systemic issues which must be addressed, including non-existent or deficient line management structures, failure to implement standard operating procedures, and poor record keeping.”
She called on the Prison Service to implement the Inspector’s recommendations across the prison system, and not only in those prisons where individual deaths occurred, so that potential future deaths can be avoided.
Ms Malone said the inspector had previously identified limitations in his powers of investigation into deaths.
“IPRT calls on the Minister for Justice to progress the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill, in order to address any limitations in prison monitoring and accountability,” she said.
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