European Committee for Prevention of Torture Report on Prisons

national | crime and justice | other press

Wednesday October 10, 2007 16:37

by C Murray

Prison and Places of Detention 2006.

This morning the State gave assurances to the Council of Europe that the health and Safety of
Irish prisoners would be upheld. This unusual occurence happened because it is the second
such report from outside the state which highlights the problems in our prisons. Both the
Amnesty International report for 2006 and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture
highlighted the murder of Gary Douch in a holding cell int the basement of Mountjoy and the
continued medieval practices of slopping out in that prison. The Committee visited ten
Garda stations, seven prisons and the Central Mental Hospital. The report is damning.

Joy Gates

It was compiled in 2006 after the visits to the places of detention, the problems occurred
whist Michael Mc Dowell was Minister for Justice. There were two plans and one purchase
of land by the Minister to ameliorate the inhumane conditions. One is caught in a
enquiry into land Purchase at Thornton, the other one was to build a huge court complex
and detention area in the Phoenix Park.

There has been no formal response by the Department of Justice to the report:

http://www.justice.ie

The right hand column of the site has the speeches and press releases.
The left hand column has the responsibility areas and if you scroll down to the 'Prisons'
section there are published the 2006 Prisons Reports by the Visiting Committees.

Indymedia articles on the death of Gary Douch and the Thornton Hall debacle:-
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/77657
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/77954

The media coverage:- http://www.ireland.com
The US State Department Coverage of the Irish prison System for the same period:-
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78818.htm