asked the Minister for Justice if he will state the regulations that govern the conduct of visits by relatives to prisoners in Portlaoise prison.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Portlaoise Prison Visits.
20.
Visits to prisoners are the subject of statutory regulations, namely, the Rules for the Government of Prisons, 1947 (Statutory Rules and Orders 1947 No. 320).
However, I assume that the Deputy's question is concerned with the practical application of the regulations in relation to Portlaoise Prison and, accordingly, I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to circulate with the Official Report a memorandum giving details of the arrangements as this affects relatives visiting prisoners in that prison.
Following is the memorandum:
Visits by relatives to prisoners at Portlaoise Prison
1. Prisoners in Portlaoise Prison are allowed to receive visits from relatives (and reputable friends) as frequently as are prisoners in any other prison in the State. One visit of half an hour's duration is allowed every week and three visitors may be present during the visit. Occasional special visits are also allowed. Visits from relatives and friends take place in the sight and in the hearing of prison officers. This supervision is a feature of visits in all prisons, to ensure that "contraband" or information of a kind which would endanger security, safe custody and good order are not exchanged during the visit. [Professional (legal) visits take place in the sight of but not in the hearing of prison officers.] Visits may take place on any weekday from 10 to 12 in the morning and from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. There is no visiting on Sundays or on Christmas Day. A prisoner may forfeit the privilege of receiving visits for a period for unsatisfactory conduct.
2. When visits were allowed in Portlaoise in the comparatively relaxed way in which they are still allowed in other prisons, the privilege was abused. Information and material—including explosives—were exchanged during visits and were subsequently used to disrupt the good order of the prison and to facilitate escapes and attempts to escape. In consequence, certain additional precautions have been taken in Portlaoise.
3. Visits are allowed to no more than 15 prisoners every morning and 15 every afternoon. This ensures that the visits can be adequately supervised and that supervision is not impeded by having a number of visits taking place simultaneously in a crowded situation. This spacing of visits need not reduce the number of visits which prisoners can have, if they co-operate in having visits spread over the week and in arranging the days and the times in advance with their visitors. Such an agreement was offered to the prisoners and, had they co-operated in putting it into effect, the spacing of visits over the week that would have resulted would have resolved the problem created by too many visitors seeking to visit on Saturdays and the disappointment which some of them experience when it is not possible to allow visits in excess of the number already stated.
4. Prior to a first visit, visitors must give notification in advance of their intention to seek to visit a prisoner. They have to give sufficient information about themselves to enable their identity and relationship to the prisoner to be checked and an assessment made as to whether a visit can be allowed without danger to the security and good order of the prison. A visit is authorised as soon as these matters are verified. Visitors are searched, on arrival at the prison, prior to the visit. This usually consists of an immediate examination of any articles in their possession and a subsequent rub-down body search in the modern—but badly vandalised— visitors' waiting-room, just outside the gate of the prison. (Everybody entering the prison, including the Governor, is subject to similar rub-down searching).
5. Visits—apart from professional (legal) visits—take place in rooms in which the section occupied by the visitors is divided from the section occupied by the prisoner by a double wire mesh screen. This screen extends from the table top to the ceiling and a transparent perspex barrier about eighteen inches high rises from the table top between the two wire meshes. This physical division, which had been discontinued in the prisons many years, had to be reintroduced in Portlaoise because dangerous "contraband"—sophisticated cutting appliances, money and explosives— was being brought in by visitors, sometimes intimately concealed, and was being passed surreptitiously to prisoners.
6. The purpose of visits is to enable family contacts to be maintained and to enable necessary family and personal business to be arranged. Discussion of internal prison matters or the affairs of other prisoners is not allowed. If it occurs, the supervising prison officer intervenes and cautions the prisoner or the visitor. If it persists, the visit is terminated. Conversation during the visit must be audible. Neither the prisoner nor a visitor is allowed to behave in an unruly or abusive fashion towards prison officers.
7. During the period of approximately 7 weeks from 1st January to 16th February, 1977, 411 visits (involving 540 visitors) were allowed to prisoners at Portlaoise Prison. With effect from 17th February, the majority of the prisoners have been refusing visits, but from 17th February to 12th March last, 75 visits (involving 85 visitors) have been allowed to the prisoners who continue to accept visits.
I am thankful to the Minister for providing the memorandum which I hope to see at some stage but not knowing what is in it, may I ask the Minister whether it is a fact that any slight infringement of these rules or regulations in regard to visits—for instance, if a mother asks her son how he is getting on and if the son replies—the interview is immediately broken up, the relative is asked to leave and the prisoner is then put into solitary confinement?
No, that is an exaggeration. That is not the position. The Deputy will see the memorandum in which the position is set out very fully. Normal conversations or normal inquiries of that nature would be quite in order. What would not be in order would be discussion of the prison and what is taking place in the prison. That is not permitted.
Is the Minister aware that two months prior to Christmas visitors were not allowed to visit the prison nor were they allowed to write letters, that each prisoner was limited to six Christmas cards, and that a parcel of sweets in the possession of a 17 months old child who was being brought to see his father was taken from the child? Was that done in the interests of security?
I am not aware that there was such a ban as stated by the Deputy in general operation. It is possible that individual prisoners, for reasons of internal prison discipline, had forfeited the privilege of letters or visits or both. That can happen because the prison population in this prison do not conduct themselves so as to observe the rules. Their objective is to make life as difficult as possible for the prison staff, to try to breach the security of the prison and to do as much harm as possible to the State. Because that is their attitude discipline must be enforced and enforced strictly. Sometimes in enforcing discipline prisoners forfeit privileges but it is the prisoners own fault if privileges are so forfeited. No goods are allowed in for security reasons. In the past contraband was attempted to be smuggled in under the guise of goods from visitors. Consequently, any goods that are required by the prisoners can be purchased by them and visitors can make the money available to the prison shop.
Could the Minister say whether he is aware that many relatives have gone to Portlaoise in the hope of seeing members of their family who were imprisoned there but have not been able to get access to the prison or to meet their relatives? There is seemingly no order whatsoever. People, having come long distances, do not know whether they will get into the prison. Many families have been left standing in the cold for hours, particularly in the last couple of months, and then were not admitted. Can the Minister say further whether there is any truth in the allegation that is made that there is a lack of warm clothing in the prison, that items like overcoats, which would be necessary in winter months, and shoes and so on are not being given to the prisoners?
It is totally untrue to suggest that there is any lack of warm clothing for prisoners. I regret that visiting conditions are not as comfortable for visitors as they might be. This is due to the fact that there is a crowding of visits on certain days of the week. I have offered on numerous occasions to the prisoners the operation of an appointments system whereby visitors could come by appointment on a fixed day at a fixed time and would be admitted without any delay whatsoever. The prisoners, because of their policy of non-cooperation with the prison authorities are not prepared to work such a system, and it is on their visitors that the hardship which ensues from that falls, not on the prisoners themselves.
Is there any right of appeal against the sentence pronounced by the governors of these prisons which, according to their relatives, are very severe? Has the prisoner a right to appeal against what appears to be an extra sentence to what has been decided by the judge in the courts?
I said that a high measure of discipline has to be preserved. However, I did not say that severe punishments are meted out. In fact, severe punishments are not meted out. Any punishments or disciplinary measures which are imposed are what are adequate to meet the offence in question. If the Deputy puts down a specific question with regard to the governor's rights and the rights of prisoners to appeal, I will answer it. I have not got that information here, and I do not wish to talk off the top of my head on that point.
Can the Minister say whether there is a sick bay in Portlaoise Prison?
In every prison there is an area in which prisoners who are ill can be placed.