The High Court has dismissed a claim by a prisoner that being locked up 23 hours a day breaches his constitutional rights. The applicant in Connolly v Governor of Wheatfield Prison is currently serving a seven year sentence and is due to be released in December 2013. Mr Connolly was attacked in prison in 2011 and feared he would be subjected to homophobic victimisation were he to remain with the general prison population. He subsequently requested that he be placed in solitary confinement for his own safety.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan found that the applicant’s rights had not been breached as his situation was reviewed regularly. However, the court did note that “if Mr Connolly’s detention under these conditions were to continue indefinitely for an extended period of months with no sign of variation, the point might very well come in which the substance of the constitutional guarantees would quickly be compromised and violated.” The judgment went on to say that it would be premature to anticipate what might materialise in the future and at present the applicant's constitutional rights were not being breached.
In related news, the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has called on the Irish Prison Service (IPS) to reduce the use of solitary confinement and prolonged lock-up in Irish prisons. According to recently released IPS figures, there are currently 211 prisoners that spend 22 hours a day or more in solitary confinement.
Of the prisoners who are in lock-up for 23 hours a day, 114 are confined to lock-up for their own protection, 32 for disciplinary reasons and 4 for medical reasons. A further 61 are detained for 22 hours a day; 57 for protection, 1 for discipline and 3 for medical reasons. The IPRT said to the Irish Times, 23 hour lock-ups “cannot be a solution in itself to prisoner safety concerns” and that “robust safeguards must be in place in relation to the use of such regimes.” Click here to read an article in the Irish Times about the case.