Prisons

Improved search technology and equipment should be deployed in Northern Ireland prisons to help prevent drug smuggling, the Prisoner Ombudsman has said. The recommendation is one of seven included in Dr Lesley Carroll's report into the death of 27-year-old Paul Johnston in Magilligan Prison in 2017.

Champion boxers Carl Frampton and Paddy Barnes visited Hydebank Wood College as part of a boxing skills initiative for young men and women in detention. The Ulster Boxing Council, the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) and the Northern Ireland Prison Service jointly hosted the six-week, non-co

Two cases brought by former prisoners over having to 'slop out' have been mentioned before the High Court. In one action, Susan McGovern, a former prisoner at Limerick Women's Prison, claims she was subject to degrading treatment when subject to the slopping out regime between 2000 and 2003 and from

A further delay to a long-awaited review into the care of vulnerable people in Northern Ireland's prisons has been condemned as "unacceptable". Justice Minister Naomi Long yesterday admitted that the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) had been "unable" to complete the review by Marc

Staff at HMP Maghaberry discussed their work with Princess Anne yesterday as the royal visited the prison in her role as patron of the Butler Trust. The Butler Trust is a national organisation which promotes and recognises excellence within correctional settings throughout the UK including in prison

Disabled people in Irish prisons face challenges in "all areas of prison life" and have poor understanding of their own legal rights, according to new research published by the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT). The penal reform group commissioned the report, entitled Making Rights Real for Peopl

The use of restrictive procedures at Oberstown Children Detention Campus has been reduced but remains "significant", inspectors have said.

Belfast man Brian Keenan, who spent four-and-a-half years as a hostage in Beirut, addressed inmates at Magilligan Prison during a creative writing awards ceremony. Mr Keenan was captured by the Islamic Jihad Organisation over 33 years ago on 11 April 1986 and spent nearly five years in a concrete ce

New family support services should be established in prisons and communities to improve outcomes for children with a parent in prison, researchers have said. A new report commissioned by the Dublin-based Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) sets out how prisoners' children are at a much greater ri

A charity is helping imprisoned dads at Hydebank Wood College deliver a special Christmas gift to their children this year. Personal recordings of Bible stories read by the dads, along with an illustrated storybook for them to follow the reading, will form part of a Christmas toy parcel and food ham

The Inspector of Prisons, Patricia Gilheaney, has called on the Government to bring forward legislative changes required by a "modern inspectorate". The Government has planned since 2011 to bring forward an Inspection of Places of Detention Bill to allow Ireland to implement the Optional Protocol to

A newly-refurbished learning and skills centre at Hydebank Wood College has been officially opened. Representatives of the NI Prison Service and its education partner, Belfast Metropolitan College, were joined by local actor Dan Gordon at the opening of the refurbished library.

A new mentoring service aimed at helping to resettle people in the community after their release from custody has been established by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland and NIACRO.

Only limited progress has been made in improving the safety of prisoners in Northern Ireland over the past five years, according to a new report. Brendan McGuigan, the outgoing chief inspector of criminal justice in Northern Ireland, said he was "frustrated" by the pace of progress in implementing r

A former “protection prisoner” who was held in a cell with other prisoners without sanitation or running water for up to 23 hours a day has been awarded €7,500 in the Supreme Court. Emphasising that the case was fact-specific and that the award should not be seen as establishing a &