Prisons

Prison visits in Northern Ireland will be suspended from Monday 27 December in response to concern about the Omicron variant. The Northern Ireland Prison Service has announced a number of "cautionary steps" to protect prisons from the threat of Covid-19 over the Christmas period.

A charity supporting prisoners, former prisoners and their families has received a festive boost from Northern Ireland's prison and probation services. The Northern Ireland Prison Service and Probation Board NI have donated a sack of toys to the Prison Fellowship NI's Christmas Hope appeal.

Ireland is one of only 20 countries in the world where more than 80 per cent of prisoners had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccination by the end of September 2021, according to a new report. The first-ever in-depth review of policies and practices related to Covid-19 vaccination in pris

A delayed review of care and supervision units (CSUs) operated by the Northern Ireland Prison Service will now be published next year, justice minister Naomi Long has said. Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) was asked by Mrs Long in November 2020 to conduct a review following an in

A new law providing for transgender prisoners in California to be housed and searched in a manner consistent with their gender identity has been challenged as unconstitutional by an anti-trans campaign group.

The criminal courts are expected to experience further disruption this week as a result of Covid-19 outbreaks in the prison system. The Irish Prison Service (IPS) said on Friday that it is dealing with active outbreaks in Cloverhill and Mountjoy, while Midlands Prison has been brought under control.

Ireland's treatment of prisoners will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council working group as part of Ireland's third universal period review (UPR) later today. States will put questions to Ireland this afternoon on its performance across a number of human rights treaties. The Irish delegation w

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) has withdrawn its appeal of a significant High Court judgment which found that the service must provide reasonable accommodation to disabled prison officers. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission provided legal representation to Robert Cunningham in taking the

A new house of worship has been officially opened in Magilligan Prison following a delay linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prison healthcare in Northern Ireland is characterised by underfunding and delays, with a £4 million budget boost needed just to bring it in line with funding levels in England and Wales, a long-awaited review has found. The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) has published its

A government review of penal policy has been expanded to include remission and how it is applied to prisoners. At present, prisoners sentenced to a definite term qualify for one quarter remission on the basis of good behaviour. Those serving life sentences, sentences for the enforcement of court ord

A harrowing incident in which a baby died in Europe's largest women's prison, with the 18-year-old mother giving birth in her cell alone despite repeated calls for help, "should never have happened", a watchdog has said. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) for England and Wales yesterday publi

The third and final volume of a legal academic's trilogy on the history of Irish political prisoners from 1848 to 2000 has been launched in Dublin.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a prison was not liable in damages to an inmate who went on hunger strike following complaints about his living conditions. The inmate had been granted €5,000 in damages by the High Court after it was held that the prison had taken six weeks to make a decision o

The number of prisoners on remand in Northern Ireland rose to a record high last year as the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed the courts system. The remand population increased by nearly 11 per cent to 545 for the 2020/21 financial year, the highest level since reporting by financial year began in 2014/1