Conditions in Irish prisons make the notorious Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq "look like a retirement home", a Labour TD has claimed.
Labour justice spokesman Joe Costello also said the true state of penal facilities in the State will be never known because the Inspector of Prisons is "gagged" by the Department of Justice.
Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen sends his findings on his prison inspections to the Minister for Justice, who then publishes them. But Mr Costello said the department should not be allowed to present "sanitised versions of his report, often censoring the most critical sections".
Mr Costello compared conditions to the Baghdad prison where instances of abuse and torture of detainees by US soldiers emerged last year.
"Conditions in Irish prisons make Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq look like a retirement home," he said.
"Gagging the Inspector of Prisons, shutting down five jails, and allowing inhumane conditions to exist in those that remain seems to be Michael McDowell's perverse interpretation of prison reform," said Mr Costello.
He was responding to the retired High Court judge's claim in an interview today that his reports had been edited by the department. In an interview in today's Irish Examiner, Mr Justice Kinlen also criticised the lack of openness, transparency and efficiency in the prison system.
"The department want to attack the messenger rather than deal with the message," he said.
Mr Justice Kinlen called on the Minister for Justice to make the Inspector of Prisons post a statutory job so that his findings could be presented directly to the Oireachtas.
The prisons inspector is only allowed visit prisons at certain appointed times, thus preventing him from making surprise visits.
"This situation has only been made worse by Justice Minister Michael McDowell's decisions to shut down five prisons despite serious overcrowding," Mr Costello said.
"Many of the country's jails are operating at levels that are seriously in excess of their capacity, yet the Minister's solution to such problems is to close them down," the Labour spokesman said.