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THE IRISH PENAL Reform Trust (IPFT) has criticised the Irish prison system today as “over-reliant” on prolonged solitary confinement as a method for securing prisoner safety.
At the launch of its annual report today, the IPFT also called for the practice of holding prisoners in isolation for more than 15 days must cease.
A recent report by the Inspector of Prisons showed that there were 193 prisoners on 23-hour lockup in March 2013, with little or no contact with teachers and services and just one hour a day of out of call time for shower and exercise which often means walking alone around a yard for 45 minutes.
The trust said that where any category of prisoner is held on lockup for 22 hours or more, this “must only ever be a temporary measure, and robust safeguards must be in place in relation to the use of such regimes”.
It also said that solitary confinement should never be used for prisoners detained on remand, for people with mental disabilities or for juveniles.
Speaking ahead of the annual IPRT lecture in Dublin,Executive Director Liam Herrick said that “the potential harm to prisoners’ mental health can be caused by extended periods of isolation” means that it should only be a temporary measure.
He said meaningful rehabilitation is “simply impossible” in current conditions and this “damaging practice” will have long term negative consequences for the prisoner and for society.
Although the term is not widely used in Ireland, the practice of isolating any person in a cell for 22 to 24 hours a day is internationally regarded as solitary confinement. When this extends beyond 15 days, it is considered prolonged solitary confinement, at which point the harmful psychological effects of isolation can become irreversible.
The adverse health effects associated with isolation range from insomnia and confusion to hallucinations and mental illness. These health risks can arise after only a few days and can increase with each additional day spent in isolation.
Recent figures show that 25 per cent of all inmates at Irish prisons are on protection. In May 2013, of the 673 prisoners on protection, 112 had been on protection for three to six months and 385 for more than six months.
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Oh it’s not meant to be a holiday camp for f sake. A bit of solitary confinement never stabbed and slit anyone’s face open. No prison is perfect.
I wish I had a quiet room and a Playstation ……….
Who are the Irish Penal Reform Trust & who funds them? How does their funding compare to funding given to Victim Support Groups?
Very valid question TFM.
Idiotic question TomasFrancisMeagher. Totally irrelevant.
Completely relevant Felix. Or do you not want transparency?
Well If they don’t like it they don’t have to go back!!
Fcuk them.
Prisoner requests protection because he fears being assaulted by other prisoners. Put in solitary and then moans and/or sues state for breaching his rights.
Prisoner doesn’t request protection, gets assaulted by other prisoners and then sues state for his inuries.
Heads the prisoner wins, Tails the prisoner wins.
Great little country we have.
Apparently the recidivist rate for criminals that are kept locked in a cell are an enormous success, none of them commit crimes in solitary
Sound like a brilliant rehabilitation program to me
We pay these idiots to come up with this PC shite and all we hear about is Prisioners Rights and the effects of solitary confinement. What about the Solitary Confinement of their victims and the lives ruined by their crimes ?
Don’t do the crime FFS !!
Dave,
You missed the point.
@ Dave Conroy
Ridiculous.
David 100% on the button. Pity the ideologist minority are so vociferous.
There are three reasons inmates are placed in Solitary. (1) The inmate is in danger from all other inmates and cannot mix even with other protection inmates. (2) The inmate is a suicide risk or a risk of self harming is high. (3)The inmate presents a danger to other inmates and staff. The Prison Service have a duty to keep inmates and staff safe. Prisons are not Psychiatric Hospitals they do not have the Psychiatric Staff on hand to deal with suicidal inmates 24/7.
As for inmates that require protection from all others prisons do not have staff available to baby sit these inmates on a one to one basis while they attend school etc. There are barely enough staff to deal with ordinary inmates. And as for those that present a danger to others. What would they suggest. Allow them to assault staff or other inmates?
The Penal Reformers regulars point to Scandinavian or Continental prison Services and say why aren’t you like them. The answer is we don’t have a Scandinavian/Continental type society. The inmates in those prisons are a different breed to those locked up in Irish prisons that’s why.
And you’re OK with that?
We live in the real world. Not some fantasy land of lollipops and candy canes where everything is wonderful. If you can get the government to quadruple the staff, provide 24hrs psychiatric staff and change society to where inmates coming into prison are not in fear because the owe money to some drug dealer or have ripped someone off or informed on somebody. Then by all means do so. But if you can’t then you will have to live in the real world with the rest of us.
Paul – the majority of people are OK with that.
Do you honestly believe that?
Do there partners still get extra dole payments when they are in solitary?
Having worked with offenders on “23 hr” lock up i can honestly say that the Penal Trust need to re-avalue their info..the bulk of offenders under this system have requested it..whether for their safety or to avoid confrontation with rival gang members..The bulk of offenders on 23lockup want to be there..Safer jail..handier jail..
Everyone’s heard of prison being “college for criminals”. Why not put them all in solitary? Give them a tv so they don’t go mad from it and let them out when their sentence is up. See what happens to the reoffender rate. Why should they be put up in a holiday camp costing the state a fortune? Put them in all in 6×6 cells.
I must admit its very hard for someone to protect another person from themselves in a place like that. I agree that whilst this confinement works, becoming reliant on it as a means to reform someone will do the opposite. It can often become the lazy mans way out but will actually increase mental health issues and more problems for the prison staff and others.
Who bloody cares?
It’s a disgrace….oh shit, gotta go now. Guard on his way and I’ve gotta shove this phone up my arse…
I think anyone sent to solitary should be compensated for the pain and suffering, breach of human rights. Poor mites.
These comments demonstrate why democracy is doomed to failure. People are too stupid to be given any responsibility.
The punishment in prison is removal of your freedom, you can’t leave. So can all you delightfully empathic human beings tell me how is society benefitted by caging someone in a cell for 23 hours a day? Comments on here are sickening in the utter disregard for another human. Even the most vile rapist or child abuser doesn’t deserve to be locked in a cage where they’ll go insane and never be rehabilitated, it’s not humane.
So tell me Martin what does the a rapist or a child abuser deserve.
A picture of Martin!
Yes they do Martin. They don’t deserve food never mind anything else.
They choose their way of life and should suffer the consequence of their actions.
And the important word is SUFFER
How many pensioners incarcerated for unpaid tv licences or the court fines this incurs , most of the prison population should not be there …period
Maybe a few kind words for the mental and pysical damage caused to their victims might be a better option,Martin, its not realistic to expect hardened criminals to be treated with kid gloves, they have to learn that if they commit the crime they are going to pay the penalty,its the only deterrent they understand.
@ Chris McDonnell
Garbage
So you have empathy for child abusers Martin? If I had my way there wouldn’t be any need for solitary because they wouldn’t be alive due to the introduction of the death penalty.
At Felix: tree hugger.
Why can’t the put the aggressors in solitary? Madness
If these people were not involved in organised criminal gangs, they would not require protection in prison from rival factions. What’s next, free-range prisoners!! Get a grip.
This Government is soft on crime thanks to the windy bleeding heart liberal labour agenda. It’s about time we started to get tough on crime and criminals.
The “do the crime…. the time” attitude says a lot about those who would choose that rationale. Human Rights are important. Abuse of same is important and expensive to society, once proven.
We live in a slow moving world. St. Patricks Institution was the first of many to be closed. The real issue is practice.
I despise those who celebrate the punishment of the guilty, because with guilt comes realisation of wrongdoing. (Which, ironically is not something the State is good at doing).
Humans are not animals.
@ Paul Roche
Its very rare to read any sense on here at all Paul. It’s usually just “Don’t do the crime…” brigade arguing that ideally they should be chained to trees in the woods somewhere and allowed to forage for their own food.
Paul – these people have affected the human rights of other. And therefore surrender any entitlement to those rights themselves.
That’s the Capital punishment argument. Not clever.
The “it doesn’t affect me so f**k them all on 23hr lock up” attitude is just crazy… Some poor fecker in doing 12 mts for shop lifting and ending up living like that,
People go deranged in conditions like that, so what happens when they get out ? The thoughts of the degrading conditions they were kept in for so long haunt them night and day, so much so that they’ll be drunk, depressed, have thoughts of suicide, living so close to edge that they’ll be like a time bomb waiting to explode… And then what happens…. Someone bumps into them in the street, a Garda tells them to move on, someone looks at them wrong n boom, the anger in them explodes n someone is dead and he’s back in under 23hr lock down,
8,304 committals for non-payment of court ordered fines in 2012 , 7,515 in 2011 , 6,683 in 2010 …..says it all really …what to do ? , privatise the thing like the yanks have done , tender out lots of social impact bond schemes , the philanthropist charities will know how to make it work …with profits
Paul if he wasn’t shoplifting in the first place he wouldn’t be in prison. But apart from that, while in prison he would only be on 23 hrs lock up for one of the three reasons I have already explained. He needs it for his own sake, he asked for it because he fears for his safety or its necessary for the safety of others. And 90% of those on 23 hrs lock up requested it themselves. So blaming the prison service for their situation is basicly stupid.
‘Punishment: A Failed Social Experiment’ utilises a large part of this documentary to explore the work of Dr Bob Johnson. (Parkhurst prison) ~ Panorama 1997. People are not born EVIL or bad. So what happened to them? Dr Johnson seems to have some of the answers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAMzoFVRFuw
If you look at the Panorama documentary from 1997 it is possible to see where some of the root cause of people’s deviant behaviour comes from. Some comes from childhood physical or sexual abuse. Different people react in different ways to such abuse. Some turn to violence and crime in later life. I am not saying this is the only cause but it is one of the causes. But can society face why human beings are capable of such violence, including murder?
For who ???
The lazy staff ???
@Mr Doyle..Staff looking after 23hr prisoners worj the hardest of all in the service..non-mixing prisoners means split exercise-feeding-visits…all whilist maintaining maximum scrutiny of those in their care..Lazy…Ha!
Paul Doyle. Spoken by someone that has no clue. As Patrick has said inmates on 23 lock up are the ones that require the most manpower. They are the most needy of all inmates.
It is the big thing over here in the States. It is barbaric, except in extreme circumstance, in that it starves the hunger of the mind.
I find it hard to feel sorry for prisoners. They live in conditions most pensioners, homeless and disabled would be thrilled to.have.
Do not worry about the poor murders and rapists, they are only getting a few months really. Sentences are ludicrous.
The ones going mad are the ones outside prisons, isolated, homeless, lonely and so worried about money they are going to be in mental hospitals. That will only be if there are any and the have medical cards.
So?
have your say