Human Rights report slams conditions for female prisoners

Conditions in which female prisoners are held in Maghaberry Jail, County Antrim, have been heavily criticised in a report by the Six-County Human Rights Commission (NIHRC).

The report, released on Tuesday 19 October, highlighted the systematic abuse of the human rights of women prisoners held at Mourne House inside the top security prison and called for a public inquiry into endemic failures in the regime, under which girls as young as 14 are held.

The report, The Hurt Inside, was commissioned by the NIHRC and raises serious concerns about the deaths of two female prisoners, 18-year-old Annie Kelly and 34-year-old Roseanne Irvine. Both women suffered serious mental illness and committed suicide while in custody.

The report also criticises the transfer in June this year of female inmates to the male Hydebank Young Offenders Centre, on the outskirts of Belfast, which the report described as "entirely inappropriate" and an "unsuitable environment" for females.

The report's authors, Prof Phil Scraton of Queens University and Dr Linda Moore, an investigations worker with the NIHRC, said they found systematic abuses of human rights, including the holding of a 17-year-old girl in solitary confinement. The teenager was locked alone in a bare cell for 23 hours a day and deprived of a mattress or bed to sleep on and had to use a plastic potty for a toilet.

Prof Scraton and Dr Moore said that far from responding to the criticisms of the inspectors' report, the regime in Mourne House has "deteriorated significantly".

The report makes 41 recommendations and states that it is essential that a further independent and public inquiry is held.