Prison and probation reports published as reformists call for crime prevention focus

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has published the Irish Prison and Probation Services annual reports and launched the Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan 2016-2018.

Ms Fitzgerald said the new strategic plan aims to “build on the considerable progress made through the previous Strategic Plan 2012–2015”.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomed the plan’s commitment to an “ethos of human rights and equality” and progress made on addressing serious human rights abuses in Irish prisons.

However, the IPRT said serious failings in Ireland’s prisons persist, particularly in the areas of physical and mental health care, and there remains over-reliance on 22-hour lock up to ensure prisoner safety.

It has called for the establishment of an Oireachtas sub-committee on crime prevention and a standing inter-agency group of senior Departmental officials responsible for crime prevention.

The penal reform group has also called for the development of inter-agency protocols around sharing of data, expertise, and responsibility for offending and re-offending.

Deirdre Malone, IPRT executive director
Deirdre Malone, IPRT executive director

Deirdre Malone, IPRT executive director, said: “Prison cannot solve the social issues that exist outside prison walls, and a ‘whole of Government’ approach is needed to tackle offending and reoffending. Cross-departmental work is nowhere more urgent than in the area of prison health and mental health, to address serious deficiencies in prison healthcare provision and ensure that people with serious mental health issues do not end up in prison in the first place.”

“IPRT urges An Tánaiste and Minister Harris to work together to establish a comprehensive review of prison health, with urgency, and to endorse the recommendation of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture that prison healthcare services be brought under the responsibility of the Department of Health and operated by the HSE.”

She added: “Concerted efforts by Government and the Irish Prison Service have seen serious human rights issues such as ‘slopping’ out and chronic overcrowding addressed in most prisons. However, the lack of adequate healthcare, detention of people with serious mental health issues, high levels of violence, and chronic over-reliance on 22-hour lock up for prisoner safety, means that we are still a long way from meeting minimum human rights standards in Ireland’s penal system.”

“The dearth of information available on the day-to-day realities of prison conditions and regimes is highly problematic. To be fully accountable to the general public, regular inspections of all prisons must take place with the reports published regularly, and the data on which criminal justice polices are developed must be made public.”

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