RECOMMENDATIONS:PROCEDURES to deal with prisoners' complaints and disciplining inmates fell short of international best practice, according to the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly.
In a special 36-page report on the issue, the inspector expressed concern that the Garda were not always informed of complaints alleging criminal behaviour. If gardaí were informed and investigated a complaint, the internal prison investigation seemed “in most cases to be put on hold”.
He repeated a recommendation made in 2008 that all prison officers should wear identification at all times while on duty, like the numbers worn by gardaí. Judge Reilly described this as “a matter of urgency”.
In a separate 31-page report on the use of “special cells”, the inspector expressed concern that safety observation cells were being used for “accommodation and management purposes” and not just for prisoners who required frequent observation.
The initial cost in 2005 of creating such a cell was €130,000 and the current cost oF repairing a recently damaged cell in Mountjoy was about €20,000.
On average, the cells were used 72 per cent of the time for medical purposes, with 100 per cent in some prisons and just 24.5 per cent of the time in Mountjoy.
Most of these cells in Mountjoy were “dirty on all of my visits, one had human excrement on a wall”.
He called for the rules governing the use of such cells to be changed.
The inspector also said protocols should be put in place to ensure prison officers against whom allegations of ill-treatment had been made were “not left in positions where they are in contact with the prisoner making the complaint” during the investigation.
The report found if a prisoner who made a complaint was transferred to another prison “the investigation of his/her complaint seemed to stop”. If a complaint was withdrawn there was never an investigation into the reasons why.
The inspector also noted “in a significant number of cases, disciplinary proceedings were taken against prisoners who had lodged complaints alleging ill-treatment”.
The inspector said consideration should be given to setting up an independent complains system to deal with complaints where a ruling could result in loss of remissions.
He added that “prison governors should be conscious that only conduct likely to constitute a threat to good order, safety or security is defined as a disciplinary offence. Greater efforts should be made to resolve issues by mediation”.
