A charity that works for Irish prisoners held abroad has warned that proposed legislation on repatriation will be “insufficient”, without adequate resources to process applications efficiently.

The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO) today (26 August) called for “a well-resourced, transparent, fair and expeditious repatriation system” to be put in place as a matter of urgency.

The Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Custodial Sentences) Bill 2021 – published earlier this year – aims to make it easier for a prisoner to serve a sentence imposed in another EU country in his or her country of residence.

Pandemic problems

The ICPO call came after it published a survey of Irish citizens in prisons overseas. It sent questionnaires to 1,100 prisoners and received 114 anonymised responses.

The survey found that 60% of respondents reported experiencing mental-health difficulties in prison – a problem the ICPO says has been exacerbated by COVID-19 restrictions.

The survey found a number of other problems linked to the pandemic – including lack of visits, prolonged lockdowns in cells, delays in legal hearings, and an inability to access educational and offender-behaviour courses.

Resettlement services

Just over 40% of prisoners did not have plans for after their release.

“This underlines the importance of dedicated resettlement services for this group of prisoners, who may not be able to access offender-behaviour, education or vocational skills courses, or preparation for release programmes, when in prison overseas,” the charity says.

The ICPO is funded by the Irish Catholic Bishop’s Conference, the Department of Foreign Affairs (through the Emigrant Support Programme) and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.