Prison inmates should be treated with some level of human dignity

LIFE in prison is not supposed to be easy but it is not supposed to be inhumanly harsh either in a civilised society.

It is worth remembering that the penalty which the criminal law imposes on someone convicted of a serious offence is a denial of liberty.

The means, obviously, being put behind bars for the crime committed and to ensure the safety of law abiding citizens.

Other liberties — like visitation rights — may also be withdrawn, under certain circumstances.

The purpose of a jail sentence is not to humiliate, place in extreme danger or otherwise punish, a criminal beyond what the law allows.

It is disturbing, therefore, to note that the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture has found Ireland’s prison service to be found wanting in key areas.

At the time of the committee’s visit in September it learned that an elderly, sick, and frail prisoner who had to share a cell with a violent man died of a heart attack after suffering a severe beating. It also found that 330 prisoners in Cork, Limerick, and Portlaoise prisons remained in Dickensian conditions and forced to ‘slop out’ every day.

The committee also criticised the detention in prison here of psychiatric patients and immigrants refused the right to remain in Ireland. There must be a more humane way of running a prison service.