European report raises concerns of conditions in Irish prisons following a number of deaths

A European report on conditions within Irish Prisons has raised concerns surrounding the deaths of a number of prisoners.

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has today published the findings of its visit to Ireland in September 2014, in which the committee also repeated its call for an end to the slopping out of cells, and raised the alleged mistreatment of people detained by gardaí.

One case from Midlands Prison involved an infirm elderly man with a history of cardiac disease, asthma, diabetes and arthritis who was moved to a double-occupancy cell despite the recommendation of a doctor who said the prisoner should be placed in a single cell.