6th December 2009
The Sunday Business Post reports that Ireland is one of ten countries identified for special scrutiny of its treatment of detainees in prisons and police stations.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has asked anyone with knowledge of the mistreatment of people in Garda stations, prisons or other places of detention to forward information to its office in Strasbourg.
The other countries identified for rigorous inspection in 2010 are France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Albania, Bulgaria, Armenia, Romania, Georgia and Macedonia.
In 2006 the CPT found that many of the state’s prisons were unsafe and degrading for both prisoners and staff, highlighting "increasing level of inter-prisoner violence, fuelled by the widespread availability of illicit drugs and the existence of a gang culture."
The report identified a culture of violence at Mountjoy prison, Limerick prison, and St Patrick’s Institution, and that conditions in some cells in Mountjoy, Limerick and Cork prisons were degrading.
Read the full article by John Burke in The Sunday Business Post.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.