asked the Minister for Justice the reason it is necessary to strip-search prisoners in Portlaoise Prison when they are having welfare visits, given that prisoners in Long Kesh and Armagh who get open visits are not strip-searched.
Written Answers. - Portlaoise Prison.
117.
Limerick East): Since the subversive prisoners were transferred to Portlaoise Prison in 1983, security there has been maintained at a high level and kept under continual review. Despite the high level of security, breaches of security have occurred, leading in one case (August 1974) to the escape of 19 prisoners, in another case (March 1975) to a prisoner being shot dead during an escape attempt and (1976) to the escape of three prisoners from Green Street Courthouse using explosives which a prisoner had brought from Portlaoise taped behind his genitals. Explosives have also been found in the prison regularly up to 1977 and occasionally since then. On one occasion in 1975 a woman smuggled explosives concealed in her vagina into the prison.
Security at Portlaoise had to be specially reviewed in the aftermath of each incident of the kind I have mentioned and extra precautions were inevitably seen to be necessary. The basic principle is that where a high-risk prisoner is about to be or has been in a position to acquire material from or deliver material to any member of the public he is strip-searched in a manner which is as little intrusive as possible in accordance with the best international practice.
148.
asked the Minister for Justice if he will consider a phased extension in the number of open visits available to prisoners in Portlaoise Prison with a view to eventually making all visits open.
Limerick East): As I have already indicated to the House, visiting arrangements in operation at Portlaoise Prison are kept under regular review. I could not, in response to a parliamentary question, give a commitment along the lines suggested by the question.