Prisons

A long-awaited review into the care of vulnerable people in Northern Ireland's prisons has been completed and a report is due to be published next week. The review was first announced in 2016 after a series of deaths in custody and was subsequently passed in December 2018 to the Regulation and Quali

An investigation will take place following the death of a prisoner at HMP Maghaberry. The death, which took place on Saturday 28 August, is "not being treated as Covid-related", the Northern Ireland Prison Service said.

A repatriation system for Irish prisoners abroad should be put in place "as a matter of urgency", a charity has recommended. The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO), which is in touch with around 1,100 Irish citizens in prisons in 30 countries around the world, said the Covid-19 pandemic had

A long-awaited review of prison healthcare has been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The health needs assessment was due to be completed in June 2021 but is still being finalised, The Medical Independent reports.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) has been urged to develop a national policy on the safe custody of transgender men and women following concerns about trans prisoners being held in prolonged solitary confinement. Prisons inspectors said two trans women prisoners in Limerick Prison are living "an extre

The first prison inspection reports published since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic have warned of a "sense of complacency" in the prison service, with increased restrictions at risk of becoming "the new norm". The Office of the Inspector of Prisons yesterday published four thematic inspection re

The initial findings of a government review of prison and penal policy will be published this autumn. Hildegarde Naughton, the minister of state for civil and criminal justice, said work is "well advanced" on the review as she launched the 2020 annual report of the Irish Prison Service (IPS) at Cast

A new report by the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has highlighted several gaps in policy and practice where the needs of children with a parent in prison are being overlooked. The report, Piecing it Together: Supporting Children and Families with a Family Member in Prison in Ireland, is being laun

The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) has announced that contact will be allowed between parents and children under 11 during prison visits from 19 July. Director general of NIPS, Ronnie Armour, said: "The re-introduction of contact between parents and children under 11 during visits is an impo

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) has announced plans to resume physical visits to prisons. The recommendation is to resume physical visits to prisons on a phased prison-by-prison basis with visits resuming seven days a week after prisoners have been fully vaccinated.

Prison authorities have been urged to ensure that security screening is conducted in a way that respects "the individual dignity of prisoners, prison staff and visitors to prison" following a complaint from a solicitor. Security processes in the Irish Prison Service (IPS) have come under greater scr

A solicitor has made a formal complaint after she was told to remove her bra before she was allowed to visit a client in Cloverhill Prison. A written complaint sent to the Irish Prison Service (IPS) outlines the "degrading incident" which took place on 11 June 2020, the Irish Examiner reports.

Northern Ireland's only remaining Victorian-era prison has reopened to visitors after a long period of closure during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Plans to establish a new joint "care and justice campus" for children and young people will go ahead after a consultation found broad support from the sector. More than 70 individuals and organisations responded to the consultation on proposals for a care and justice campus incorporating the existin

Ireland's prisons inspector has raised concerns about the delay in reforming the prisoner complaints system after warning it is "unfit for purpose" for the third successive year. Prisons inspector Patricia Gilheaney, writing in her annual report for 2020, said: "An effective complaints system is an