Complaint made about treatment of van prisoners
COUNCIL OFFERS TO PROVIDE CELLS
■ The former County Hall in Wexford.
A COMPLAINT was made to the Inspecor of Prisons about the inhumane treatement of offenders who are locked in vans outside Wexford Circuit Court for hours on end.
The offenders arrive on remand from Mountjoy, Wheatfield and Clover Hill prisons and must wait in a locked cubicle the size of a telephone box until their cases are called.
Following a recent complaint, arrangements are now being made to provide more suitable holding accommodation in the old County Hall building.
County Secretary Niall Mcdonald met the Assistant Governor of the Prison Escort Corps last Friday to disuss the problem.
Mr. Mcdonald told a Joint Policing Committee on Monday that the prison service received a complaint about the detention of prisoners in vans while awaiting appearances in court.
Prisoners are being held in portable cells in vans parked outside the court and are being confined from 8 a.m. up to 8 p.m. at night on occasions.
Mr. Mcdonald said the County Council has offered to provide two cells in the former County Hall which is now used by Wexford Borough Council.
Wexford Circuit Court is also housed in the building.
The provision of cells will be conditional on the court service footing the bill to make the accommodation secure.
The other option is for the prison service to provide more spacious 'cellular accommodation' in a larger vehicle.
'We are responding to a complaint that was made formally to the Inspector of Prisons and I hope that with the co-operation of the prison service, we will be able to solve the problem,' said Mr. Mcdonald.
The County Secretary said the Council does not have an obligation to provide prisoner accommodation. That is the duty of the court service.
But the local authority has offered to assist with a solution to the problem, he added.
- MARIA PEPPER
