An independent review has found that some prisoners in Northern Ireland have been held in conditions that amount to solitary confinement, falling short of United Nations standards.

The report on the operation of Care and Supervision Units (CSUs) in the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) was carried out after a request from Northern Ireland’s Minister for Justice Naomi Long.

The minister’s move came after significant concerns were raised about the operation of the units in Northern Ireland’s prisons.

Jacqui Durkin (Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland), who led the review, pointed out that, while prisoners could be segregated in CSUs for various reasons, there were accepted standards for their treatment that had been set out by bodies such as the United Nations and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in England and Wales (HMIP).

These include access to healthcare and purposeful activity – such as learning, skills and physical activity. 

‘Meaningful’ contact

Ms Durkin said that her review found evidence that the regime experienced by a number of CSU prisoners did not meet the UN Standard Minimum Rules, known as the Mandela Rules. 

“We found evidence that prisoners in CSUs were spending too long in their cell without meaningful human contact,” she stated.

Inspectors also found that meaningful human contact and interactions with prisoners were not sufficiently evidenced or recorded to dispel wider concerns about the length of time prisoners spent in their cells.

“For contact to be ‘meaningful’ it must extend beyond meeting a prisoner’s basic needs – such as providing a food tray at a door, asking if they had any requests or wanted a shower,” said Ms Durkin.

The report found, however, that prison staff were “hindered” by the limitations of present facilities, and that they needed to be supported with “appropriate staff-selection procedures” and training.