Up to one in four inmates in Mountjoy prison are in solitary confinement at any given time due to their fears of attack from gang members, a report has found. It said the availability of illegal drugs at Mountjoy continues to pose problems for prisoners and staff as well as being “a potential source or risk of intimidation to prisoners’ families”. The committee said the requirement to segregate prisoners for the purpose of avoiding inter-prisoner violence is a difficult issue. There were 120 prisoners under a protection regime in October 2016. End of isolationDeirdre Malone, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said using isolation as a tool for the management of prison violence creates new problems for prisoners.

Source: The Irish Times January 17, 2018 18:33 UTC