European inspectors arrive amid overcrowding crisis in Ireland's prisons

The inspection team met senior garda officials and several Government figures, including Justice Minister Helen McEntee. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Security Correspondent

A European anti-torture inspection agency has conducted a visit to Ireland during the biggest overcrowding crisis in Irish prisons.

Inspectors are understood to have focused on the level of mental illness among prisoners and the healthcare available to them, the situation regarding female prisoners, and conditions for restricted regimes and being locked in their cells most of the day.

The Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) also inspected the Central Mental Hospital, as well as Oberstown Children Detection Campus and Ballydowd Special Care Unit.

Unlike its previous inspections, which take place every five years, the CPT did not visit garda stations.

The inspection team visited:

• Castlerea, which currently has 384 inmates for 340 spaces (113% overcapacity);
• Cloverhill Remand, which currently has 481 prisoners for 433 spaces (111%);
• Limerick Female Prison, which has 74 inmates for 56 spaces (132%);
• Limerick MalePrison, which has 324 prisoners for 286 spaces (113%);
• Mountjoy Male, which has 899 prisoners for 755 spaces (119%)

The inspection team met senior garda officials and Government figures including Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Minister of State for Mental Health Mary Butler.

They also had meetings with the Inspector of Prisons Mark Kelly, the Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon, Mental Health Commission general counsel Orla Keane and the Inspector of Mental Health Services Jim Lucey.

Civil organisations consulted during the visit included the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the College of Psychiatrists, the Irish Penal Reform Trust, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mental Health Reform and Empowering People in Care.

In a statement issued this week, the CPT said of the visit: “In the course of the visit, the delegation examined the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in prison and their conditions of detention.

“Further, the delegation assessed the situation of persons deprived of their liberty in psychiatric hospitals and juveniles held in an educational institution.”

It said the delegation also visited a special care unit (Ballydowd) in which children with complex needs are detained.

“Particular attention was paid to the measures taken by the authorities to implement recommendations made by the Committee after its previous visits, including as regards women in prison, prisoners held on restricted regimes, the provision of mental healthcare and deaths in custody,” the statement said.

In its last inspection, the CPT visited five garda stations: three in Dublin (Clontarf, Mountjoy and Store Street) and two in Cork (Bridewell and Cobh).