'Behind the Door':Solitary Confinement in the Irish Penal System

This report contains 25 key recommendations centring on the use of solitary confinement and restricted regimes in Ireland. Our goal is ambitious but achievable – the abolition of solitary confinement in Ireland in the short term and the gradual elimination of the use of restricted regimes with the ultimate target of 12 hours out-of-cell time daily for all prisoners across the prison estate. Some of the key recommendations arising from the report include: • The placement in solitary confinement of adults with mental health difficulties or mental or physical disabilities should be prohibited. • Where a prisoner requests to be kept on protection for an extended period, this should be kept under constant review. • The Irish Prison Service should research and develop a range of initiatives to address violence in prisons. These may include, but should not be limited to, restorative justice approaches and weapons amnesties. • Prisoners on protection or other restricted regimes should be provided with meaningful access to work, training and education, as well as other activities and services. As far as possible this should be in association with other prisoners. • The Irish Prison Service should regularly collect and publish data relating to the length of time prisoners spend on restricted regimes in all prisons

Transnational criminal justice instruments and the management of ‘unwanted’ EU nationals: an introduction

[Abstract] This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores several EU law instruments aimed at enabling the cross-border cooperation of national criminal justice authorities in prosecuting and punishing criminal offences in cases where actors from different jurisdictions are involved. It explores in more detail the aforementioned aspects of transnational justice and forced mobility practices. The book then discusses the process of transposition of Framework Decision 909 in Italy, highlighting Italian authorities’ attempted use of this legal device to create conditions to transfer foreign national prisoners out of Italy to deal with long-criticised overcrowding problems in the country's prison system. It also focuses on the analysis of the workings of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW). The book provides a detailed analysis of the Court of Justice of the European Union cases relating to the refusal grounds in the execution of the EAW

Reintegration of prisoners in Ireland: new research findings.

This article presents selected findings of a study of the provision of reintegration support for prisoners leaving custody in Ireland undertaken by the authors for the Irish Penal Reform Trust. It argues that provision of certain support such as accommodation has improved significantly in recent years, but some important difficulties remain. Considering the sharp increase in the number of people in custody in Ireland, the authors argue that investment in post-release support should form the central part of the State’s response to the rise in prison population

“It’s like stepping on a landmine…” - Reintegration of prisoners in Ireland.

This report looks at reintegration services in Ireland and identifies the developments needed to improve the level of support currently available to prisoners, exprisoners and their families to limit the experience of imprisonment in the future. The findings of the report are based on a study undertaken by the Irish Penal Reform Trust between October 2009 and February 2010, which consisted of an extensive literature review, a number of semi-structured interviews with service providers (in the statutory and non-statutory sector), a short questionnaire sent out to a number of service providers in the community sector in different regions of Ireland, and two focus groupswith ex-prisoners residing in the Dublin area