The holding of mentally-ill patients in padded Garda cells should be halted immediately, according to a review by the Irish Human Rights Commission. Human rights modules should be included in Garda training and all prisoner interviews should be videotaped, the report recommends.
A number of criticisms are contained in a 50-page document submitted to the Government, commenting on an earlier report from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). The CPT delivered its third report on Ireland's various types of detention centres following a visit here in February 2002.
It said that inadequate action, or no action, has been taken by the Government to address issues raised since 1993 by the CPT about the treatment of people in custody.
The IHRC recommends that immediate steps be taken to bring to an end the practice of holding mentally-ill prisoners in padded cells. It pointed out that in February 2002, the CPT communicated its "urgent concern" to the Government that holding such patients in padded cells because of the lack of places in the Central Mental Hospital could be characterised as "inhuman and degrading treatment", and called for "immediate steps" to be taken to end it.
"The IHRC is gravely concerned that the detention of persons in padded cells awaiting transfer to the CMH remains widespread, progress has been extremely slow," the commission said in its observations.
It also recommended that the Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill be amended to provide protection for those transferred from prison to the Central Mental Hospital.
It urged the amendment of the Garda Síochána Bill to give the Garda Ombudsman Commission the power to visit Garda stations on its own volition and unannounced.
It recommended that the 1984 Criminal Justice Act dealing with the recording of interviews be amended to require members of the Garda Síochána to video all interviews with suspects in custody, and that human rights concepts be fully integrated into all Garda training.
The independence, functions and powers of the Inspector of Prisons should also be laid down in statute as a matter of priority, it said. This should be accompanied by an independent and impartial complaints mechanism for prisoners.
There should be a long-term strategy to address the conditions of detention. "The IHRC is gravely concerned that the overall conditions of detention in much of the Irish prison system are unsatisfactory and do not comply with the CPT standards and the developing requirements under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights."
The IHRC pointed out that many of the comments from the CPT echoed previous concerns raised since its first visit in 1993. These included the continued detention of mentally-ill prisoners in padded cells; the lack of video-taping of all interviews with suspects; concern about conditions in prisons; and the lack of an adequate legislative framework for the admittance and treatment of people with intellectual disabilities in residential centres.