North of Ireland: New CPT Criticism of Maghaberry Prison

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has released its most recent report on its visit to police stations and prisons in England and Northern Ireland. One of the facilities

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has released its most recent report on its visit to police stations and prisons in England and Northern Ireland.

One of the facilities visited was Maghaberry Prison in which a number of Irish republican prisoners are detained. The prison has often been the centre of controversy and indeed has been in the news recently following the resignation of its new Governor.

The CPT criticises medical provision at the prison and also highlights overcrowding.

It also contains a quite forceful critique of the regime for intimate searches of prisoners.

The CPT also reports on visits to a number of police stations in N. Ireland/

The full CPT report can be found at:

http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/gbr/2009-30-inf-eng.pdf

(It is also available in HTML on the CPT web pages)

A summary of the CPT visit can be found at:

http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/gbr/2009-12-08-eng.htm

Related items on Maghaberry and the CPT on Celtic News at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/2910 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/1460 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/1365 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/1188 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celtic_league/message/1047

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

08/12/09