Prisoners bring 1,300 legal cases on ‘slopping out’
MORE than 1,300 legal cases have been brought against the State over the controversial practice of slopping out, new figures from the Justice Minister have revealed.
The claims have been taken by convicts and ex-prisoners seeking damages over the practice which involves the emptying of buckets of human waste in prisons when prison cells are unlocked in the morning.
Speaking about the figures in response to a question posed by Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn last week, the Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that figures from the Irish Prison Service showed there have been 1,304 claims relating specifically to the practice of slopping out received by the State over the years 2010 to 2015, up to and including March 31, 2015.
She said that these figures include ‘claims that are at prelitigation and litigation stage’.
Some 450 of these cases were resolved or closed for a ‘variety of reasons’ the minister said.
She added: ‘ I am f urther advised by the Irish Prison Service that one claim was settled in 2013 and a further two were settled in 2014. No compensa- tion payments were made to prisoners or ex- prisoners in respect of any of these claims relating solely to the practice of slopping out.’
The disclosure that no compensation has been paid to any Irish inmates comes after there were reports in 2013 that a prisoner had brought a case and had been awarded over €30,000 in a confidential settlement.
After this, the figures show that the number of claims being brought spiked massively from three claims brought in 2013 to 668 cases brought in 2014.
To date this year, there have been 131 legal cases lodged by Irish convicts or ex-prisoners seeking damages over the practice.
Many of the Irish cases were lodged following a landmark case in Scotland in 2005 where inmate Robert Napier – sen- tenced to six years for armed robbery – was awarded £2,450 compensation after spending 40 days in an overcrowded cell with no guaranteed access to a toilet.
He used the European Convention on Human Rights to sue prison management.
Last year, the Ms Fitzgerald said that i n Mountjoy, the degrading practice had been ‘consigned to history’.
Previously, the Irish branch of Amnesty International had expressed concerns over the practice.
Ms Fitzgerald said last year that the numbers of prisoners slopping out across the system
‘No compensation payments made’
had reduced by 67 per cent from 1,003 at the end of 2010.
The issue of slopping out came to the fore again last October when Emily Logan, the chief commissioner designate of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission said that she believed that a ‘concrete timeline for ending the practice of slopping out in prisons needs to be established’.
Ms Logan said she was repeating the concerns of the United Nations Human Rights Committee who recommended that the Irish Government step up its efforts to improve the living conditions and treatment of detainees.
She also said that she is concerned about the serious gaps in the current complaints and investigation mechanisms in places of detention in Ireland.
Practice down 67 per cent