Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Daly for bringing this Bill forward. We support it and, indeed, the call to ban solitary confinement altogether. In many circumstances it is a form of torture. The Government's response is very poor. It is unfortunate that it will not agree to support the Bill, but I will comment further on its response later.

I will start with a quote from a man called Anthony Graves, who spent years in solitary confinement:

The way they treated me was dehumanising. It was like I was an animal. I had 60 square feet, with four walls that seemed to close in on me every day. I could sometimes hear guys screaming... Solitary confinement plays tricks on your mind. You're bound by four walls, you're bound by four walls, you're cut off from society, and you're left with just your own thoughts. Sometimes you start to feel like, if they treat me like this, I'm going to act like this. And then you risk becoming the kind of person that it seems like they're trying to tell society that you are. Human contact was what I missed most - something that told me that I was still loved, and that I was still able to love. We don't realise how important human contact is. When we give hugs and shake hands, it's because we need to. I don't know how to explain the emptiness it leaves when you are not allowed human contact anymore. It felt like they were starving me to death.

Anthony Graves was not imprisoned in Ireland. He was imprisoned in America, where solitary confinement is an absolute scourge and where 80,000 people are in solitary confinement at any one time, and 20,000 of those for extended periods of time in absolutely horrific conditions. They include political prisoners and those who have been framed, such as Mumia Abu-Jamal who has faced solitary confinement. It is used elsewhere around the world. The Irish citizen, Ibrahim Halawa, has faced solitary confinement. A very moving letter from him is published in today's newspapers. It should encourage all of us and the Government to act in the strongest way possible.

It happens not only in America and overseas, but also in this country. Historically, solitary confinement has played a role in this State. Countess Markievicz, a former Member of this House, was subject to solitary confinement. Sheila Humphreys, in a counter-revolution at the foundation of the State, was also subject to solitary confinement. Obviously, the British State used solitary confinement relatively extensively in Northern Ireland. Solitary confinement is also used today in the South, although it is not defined as that by the Government. I thank the Irish Penal Reform Trust for the useful information it circulated. It demonstrates that, on average, there are 80 prisoners in 22 or 23 hour lock-up on any given day in Ireland. A census of Irish prisons in October 2016 showed there are 424 prisoners on a restricted regime of some type and, quite shockingly, that 24 prisoners are in solitary confinement for over 100 days and nine are in solitary confinement for over a year. What is interesting in the figures is the allocation of those in solitary confinement to different prisons. Nine of the 31 are currently in Cloverhill Prison and 11 are in Portlaoise, so two prisons account for two thirds of the prisoners currently in solitary confinement for reasons of order. The numbers appear to fluctuate over time. It might be useful for the Minister to pay attention to the reasons behind the increases at particular times in certain prisons and why that is the case.

Juan Méndez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, has been clear on this. He deals with the issue of not having a definition of solitary confinement by saying:

Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit... whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by states as a punishment or extortion technique... Solitary confinement is a harsh measure which is contrary to rehabilitation, the aim of the penitentiary system.

That gets to the point here. What is the aim of the penitentiary system, as he calls it? What is the aim of our penal system? This relates to solitary confinement but it reaches further. Is it about punishment? Is it about a transactional view of justice, of people getting a pound of flesh, or is it about rehabilitation? Is it about the interests of society and doing things that are in the best interests of society, to have a society with as little crime and as few anti-social acts as possible? That gets to the heart of the approach, or non-approach, of the Government.

It does not take an expert to realise that being locked up with extremely minimal human contact is devastating for people's mental and physical health. An American study in 2006 showed that one third of solitary confinement prisoners suffered from illusions or hallucinations, over half had reported progressive inability to tolerate ordinary stimuli and there were issues such as panic attacks, paranoia, a loss of concentration, insomnia, confusion and a negative effect on the physical health. Amnesty International has reported that half of all prison suicides in the US occur in solitary confinement cells. Even more worrying is the fact that after 15 days the effect on somebody's mental health can be irreversible. That is demonstrated by some of the examples one can read about online. The Guardianhas an app, 6x9, whereby one can experience for a couple of seconds or minutes what it is like to be in solitary confinement. One can multiply that by the number of days. The State is willing to engage in this to deprive people of contact with other human beings and, therefore, of their mental health.

There is a particular concern for those who are on remand. They are presumed innocent until proven guilty, so there is an even higher impact on their mental health. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture identified those prisoners as having a higher risk of suicide and self-harm than other prisoners. Crucially, it can impact on their ability to make decisions relating to their forthcoming trials, such as guilty pleas, confessions and so forth.

The Government's response is extremely poor. The Minister said "the Bill attempts to micro-manage in primary legislation the regime for dangerous, unwell, vulnerable and disruptive prisoners". He says it is not something in which we should be engaged and that it should be left to secondary legislation. Consider what is in the Bill. It provides that solitary confinement cannot be for longer than 15 days at a time or for more than 30 days in a year. Does the Minister and the Government believe that people should be held in solitary confinement for longer than 15 days, when we know it can have a permanent impact on people's mental health? Do they believe that people should be held in solitary confinement for more than 30 days in a year? The Bill provides that it cannot be used as a punitive exercise, which is in line with what the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has said. Does the Minister think that it should be used as a punitive exercise? The Bill also provides that it cannot be used for the disabled or mentally unwell and that a doctor and mental health professional must visit a prisoner in solitary confinement on the first day. It is not an unreasonable request. The Bill provides that it cannot be used for prisoners on remand. Bear in mind that people on remand have not been found guilty of anything and they maintain their innocence.

The Bill states that it can only be used in exceptional cases and each case would be reviewed every three days. What response can the Government have to that? A prisoner would still have access to work, training, education and family visits and would still have a right to make complaints in the normal way. I do not understand what the problem is with limiting the ability of a prison governor to impose solitary confinement on a prisoner. The Bill does not go as far as many of us would like in terms of banning solitary confinement altogether. That makes the Government's unwillingness to accept it all the more outrageous, uncaring and inhumane. The Bill will pass Second Stage, which is good. The Minister will have to come up with something better on Committee Stage and engage with the legislation. If the consequence is that it has resource implications so that we do not torture prisoners, that choice will have to be made. We will have to allocate some resources so prisoners are not mentally and physically tortured as a result of solitary confinement.

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