Human Rights Standards and Irish Prisons

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Human Rights Standards and Irish Prisons

• Ursula Kilkelly
• Claire Hamilton
• Irish Penal Reform Trust
• www.iprt.ie

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About the IPRT

• Founded in 1994 Irelands leading NGO working
  on prisoners rights and penal reform
• Campaigns for the rights of people in prison
• Works towards
• The reduction of the use of imprisonment
• Improving conditions in prisons in line with
  international human rights standards
• Through media work, research, contribution to law
  and policy, raising awareness and legal action
• NGO in Special Consultative Status with the
  Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

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International Standards

• Human rights principles at the heart of IPRTs
  work
• Important to contextualise prison issues in human
  rights terms
• International standards
• European Convention on Human Rights
• European Convention on the Prevention of Torture
• Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
• Convention against Torture (Note no ratification
  of OP)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
• UN Rules (eg UN Standard Minimum Rules for the
  Treatment of Prisoners 1955)

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Prisoners Rights Standards

• Right to Life
• Duty to take all reasonable measures to protect
  life and to investigate deaths promptly and
  independently
• Freedom from Inhuman and Degrading Treatment
• relevance to prison conditions, health (HIV/AIDS,
  drugs), overcrowding and in-cell sanitation,
  treatment of those at risk

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Prisoners Rights Standards

• Right to fair procedures
• Right to Privacy/Family Life
• Right to correspond/visit with legal advisers and
  family - limits must be in accordance with law
  and proportionate to the needs of security
  blanket censorship not allowed
• Special standards apply to Children
• Detention as a last resort, right to special
  treatment, right to education including emerging
  right to rehabilitation

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Irish Law and Policy

• No comprehensive statutory framework governing
  prisoners rights
• The Irish Constitution non interventionist
  policy
• European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003
  giving further effect to the ECHR in Irish law
• Prison Rules 2005 - welcome update but not a
  substitute for legislation containing minimum
  standards

Mountjoy Prison, Dublin
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Problematic Areas The Irish Prison Regime

• Use of Prison
• Number serving short sentences
• High rates of imprisonment for non-violent
  offences and non-payment of fines
• Increasing number detained before trial
• Failure to separate remand from committed
  prisoners
• Continuing imprisonment of children under 18
  years

Mountjoy Prison, Dublin
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Problematic Areas The Irish Prison Regime

• Prison Conditions
• - Inter prisoner violence
• - Overcrowding
• - Lack of in-cell sanitation
• - Drug use and related problems
• - Treatment of those with mental health
  problems/seeking protection
• - Disciplinary Mechanisms
• - Lack of free correspondence

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Problematic Areas The Irish Prison Regime

• Monitoring vital human rights issue
• - Problems historically with accountability
  mechanisms
• - Prisons Inspectorate powers limited by
  statute, resources
• - No independent complaints mechanism to
  investigate individual issues and grievances
• - No automatic, independent process of
  investigation follows deaths in custody

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Future Challenges

• Penal Populism
• New prisons in Cork and Dublin provide important
  new buildings and modern facilities
• Human rights of prisoners in the interim period?
• Will not solve Irelands prisoners rights
  problems and may create more
• Prisoner distance from family, warehousing of
  prisoners, under-investment in regime
  (rehabilitation, training, health support), may
  provide support for increased imprisonment
• Vital that rights of prisoners inform both the
  design and the operation of the new prisons
• IPRT is ready to be a constructive voice in this
  dialogue

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• Our lives begin to
• end the day we
• become silent about
• things that matter.
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• 19291968