'Slaps, punches, kicks' - Europe's torture watchdog spotlight 'inhuman' Irish prison problems

Pervasive overcrowding, worsening safety, poor prisoner treatment have become entrenched at prisons in Ireland according to the official European agency that monitors torture.

The Council of Europe anti-torture committee (CPT) has just published its report arising from May 2024 visits to jails in Ireland including the two prisons in Portlaoise. 

A statement published to launch the report flagged allegations of prisoner abuse by staff have increased since the last report in 2019 with 'slaps, punches, kicks' 

The CPT said certain reforms to improve the situation in Irish prisons had been implemented since the Committee’s previous visit in 2019.

For example, infrastructure has improved, particularly in the women’s estate, and the use of segregation for security reasons has decreased significantly, supported by better record-keeping and oversight. The scope of temporary release has expanded, and “slopping-out” practices have been almost eradicated.

However, it said several entrenched issues of concern remain. These include:

• Pervasive overcrowding,
• Worsening safety in men’s prisons,
• Inadequate mental healthcare,
• Poor treatment of prisoners held on protection regimes,
• Gaps in legal protections for most vulnerable persons including mentally ill prisoners and young people in detention.
• In its report, the CPT calls for the Irish authorities to take concrete actions to address these critical issues.

The CPT says it found that physical safety in male prisons has deteriorated sharply. It found that allegations of prisoner abuse by staff have increased since 2019, particularly in Cloverhill and Limerick Prisons.

"Incidents included slaps, punches, kicks and other violence in places without CCTV coverage, such as escort vans and reception areas. MORE BELOW PHOTO.

Midlands Prison Portlaoise.

"The CPT also received several allegations of excessive force during control and restraint interventions and relocations, some corroborated by medical findings and independent enquiries. Meanwhile, inter-prisoner violence remains widespread, with drug-related conflict and contraband smuggling driving much of the violence," said the statement.

Death in custody is also highlighted.

"Equally concerning was a pattern of some preventable deaths in custody, notably among prisoners suspected of concealing drugs inside their bodies. The absence of rigorous critical incident reviews means that similar tragedies recur without institutional learning or corrective action," it said.

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Prisons packed beyond capacity was also found to be a problem.

"Overcrowding remains a chronic issue. In most facilities visited, many cells were packed with three or four inmates in single or double-occupancy cells. Some persons were forced to sleep on camp beds or mattresses on the floor, sometimes in squalid conditions.

"Such overcrowding exacerbated the situation for prisoners held in restricted segregation for protection reasons, who often spend up to 22 or even 23 hours a day locked in their cells, sometimes for extended periods, without meaningful activities. Such conditions, in the CPT’s view, may amount to inhuman and degrading treatment," said a statment.

The Committee added that it remains critical of the widespread use of closed observation cells whereby segregated prisoners in need of increased supervision are subjected to practices such as being stripped naked and placed in thin, small ponchos without any individual risk assessment. It said confinement to cells with no access to daily fresh air and no therapeutic care for at-risk individuals could be considered degrading.

The provision of mental healthcare across prisons was also found to be "critically deficient". It said overcrowding and an embedded reliance on imprisonment for severely mentally ill prisoners "exacerbate the problem".

The report said high-Support Units offer little care beyond confinement.

"They do not meet the standards promised either in name or in function. The CPT underscores, once again, that prisons are fundamentally inappropriate for those with severe mental illness and they should not serve as substitutes for medical institutions," said the statement.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) said the findings confirm concerns it has consistently voiced over the past two years. The IPRT Executive Director, Saoirse Brady.

“The CPT paints a stark picture of chronic prison overcrowding and its impact. Notably, the Committee visited Ireland before we crossed the unprecedented threshold of 5,000 people in prison. Given that we continue to break records almost weekly in terms of escalating prison numbers, conditions have only deteriorated further to an unacceptable and unsafe level. Once again, the CPT has repeated its call for the State to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT).

"At a time when the situation across the prison estate is so dire, IPRT supports the Committee’s recommendation to put in place and invest in preventative mechanisms to proactively identify and address the root causes of ill-treatment in Irish prisons,” she said.