Prison report - Proposals must be implemented

THE report on the levels of HIV infection and hepatitis C in Irish prisons makes for very grim reading.

Described as being at epidemic proportions, it demands a radical approach to begin to arrest a frightening situation.

The rate of hepatitis C among prisoners is more than 100 times higher than in the general population, while the level of HIV is more than ten times higher, according to the report commissioned by the Irish Penal Reform Trust and Merchants Quay Ireland.