Irish Penal Reform Trust has published a report todayassailing the use of padded cells for mentally ill prisoners.
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Trust chairwoman Dr Valerie Bresnihan said the findings of the report were "truly shocking". She said: "Putting mentally ill people in solitary confinement or strip cells is a grotesque way of storing human beings."
The report examined 224 entries into strip cells - solitary confinement - in three Irish prisons between February 20th and March 20th, 2001.The IPRT welcomed the openness of the governors of Limerick, Cork and Mountjoy prisons.
According to the IPRT the mentally ill should not be in prison at all but should be cared for by the mental health care system.
It also calls for the radical overhaul of the prison health system including the immediate refurbishment of 40 rooms in the Central Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane, immediate setting up of suitable in-service psychiatric clinics, and the introduction of a full-time inspector of prisons and an ombudsman for prisoners.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust's report findings allege:
- Solitary confinement (strip cells) is used as a regular substitute for medical care.
- A total of 78 per cent of prisoners in strip cells were found to be mentally ill.
- Some mentally ill prisoners are repeatedly put into strip cells.
- The longest stay in a strip cell at any one given time was 18 days.
- Some prisoners are kept naked while in solitary confinement.
- Some cells have no call button and prisoners cannot seek help.
- Some cells have "slopping out" buckets.
- Reliable sources have witnessed mentally ill prisoners eating paint from walls and defecating in strip cells.