The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has called on the Government to speed up efforts to reduce the prison population in order to uphold the rights of those in custody and protect the wider prison community from COVID-19.

While noting the measures already taken, the trust said there was a need for more action through presumption of bail and the increased use of non-custodial sanctions, alongside the continued safe early release of sentenced prisoners.

The campaigning group also called on the Minister for Justice and Equality to ensure that monitoring bodies such as the Office of the Inspector of Prisons had the resources to ensure human rights were respected during the pandemic.

The IPRT call came in response to a judgment in a case taken by a remand prisoner who is being kept in his cell for 24 hours a day, with no access to exercise.

Logistical challenges

The court found that the temporary nature of the man’s situation, and the logistical challenges faced by the Irish Prison Service in having so many prisoners cocooning or in quarantine, justified the limitation of his entitlements under the Prison Rules.

The IPRT’s executive director Fíona Ní Chinnéide (pictured), said that if minimum entitlements could not be met due to staffing and logistical pressures during the COVID-19 crisis, then a further reduction in prison numbers was needed.

Lock-up

“Responses that rely on lock-up for extended periods will exacerbate fears and tensions and increase the risk of violent incidents in prison,” she said.

“This is in addition to the serious risk to health that an outbreak of COVID-19 in crowded prisons would present.”