Equality and Diversity - Essay Example

Names : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Equality and Diversity Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @ 2010 Equality and Diversity Introduction Minister for Justice, Equality and Law reform is the one who is responsible for the prison system within Ireland. The Irish prison service runs as an executive body in the department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The head of this Service is the director general who is assisted by seven directors. On the other hand, a non-executive Prisons authority Interim Board is responsible of guiding and advising on matters concerning prison system management (Irish Prison Service 2007). The Irish Service is operated within statutory structure consisting of: (i) The Prisons Acts, which include the latest Prisons Act 2007, (ii) Pertinent provisions in other statutes like the Prisons Visiting Committees Act, 1925, the Criminal Justice Act, 1960, the Criminal Justice Act, 1997, the Criminal Justice Act, 2007, extra criminal justice acts as well as the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts, 1995 and 1997. (iii) The Rules for the Government of Prisons, 2007. For people held on immigration related issues the major legislative provisions include the Immigration Acts 1999, 2003 and 2004, their related regulations, the Illegal Immigrants Trafficking Act 2000 and the Refugee Act 1996. The Prison Service also implement the UN and European Conventions on Human Rights, UN Standard Minimum regulations on how prisoners are treated, the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Cruel or Demeaning Treatment or Punishment, the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Cruel or Demeaning Treatment or Punishment (Samuel 2009). Legislation in Ireland requires the Irish prison Service to ensure that every person within custody is offered services and conditions that are suitable to their well being as well as their personal development. Section 35 of the Prisons Act 2007 was effected on May 2007 and offers for the establishment of the prison rules. The prison rules provides a variety of conditions within prisons in Ireland and consists of all the elements of admittance, registration, housing, visiting rights, health, discipline, education and many more. This Act broadens the range of issues covered by prison rules (McGowan 2006).  The rules recommend that the Irish prisoners are provided with a healthy diet which should be supplied to everyone within custody according to prison rules. The prisoners whose diet can be changed should be approved by the Medical Officer. This ensures that there is no discrimination while offering the meals and hence all prisoners are handled equally. All prisoners should not wear uniform but should be offered a variety of clothing in fashion within the community. Clothing can be changed twice a week but in some conditions, a prison can wear his/her clothes. If authorization for this is granted, the prisoner is required to have enough clothing to facilitate clothing changing. Changes of undergarments are provided to each and every prisoner. All prisoners are allowed to clean their clothing daily and bath at least once a week and Cell bedding usually consists of mattress, duvet, a pillow, pillow slip and sheets. This is offered to all Irish prisoners irrespective of the crime or status quo within the society (Irish Prison Service 2007). Furthermore, all prisoners are provided with recreation facilities and services while in custody. The Irish prisoners are free to participate in recreation during weekends, evening and when they are not working or attending educational classes. The recreation facilities comprise of television, table games and library facilities. Still, the prisoners get an opportunity to get involved in gym activities as well as outdoor games. Particularly trained prison officials offer gym instruction and supervision to the prisoners. This gives the prisoners a chance to catch news updates regarding their country’s on-goings in addition to enjoying the recreation service like any other Ireland citizen (Irish Prison Service 2007). The 1947 prison Regulations offers the legislation for visiting arrangements for the prisoners. Under these regulations, a prisoner who has been sentenced is allowed to be visited once a week for thirty minutes while a prisoner in remand is allowed to be visited any time over the week for a period of fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, in practice extra or longer visits can be granted where situations allow, at the Governor’s judgment. Normally, all Irish prisons do not permit 3/4 visitor per prisoner at a time (McGowan 2006). Most visits are monitored in sight and not in hearing of the prison personnel and this is to make sure that good order as well as the security is availed and to prevent passing of smuggled goods to the prisoners by their visitors. The regularity of the visits varies in accordance to the type of prison institute. For instance, in open centers where sentenced prisoners are accommodated, the prisoners are normally visited on Saturday and Sunday, between particular hours. The visitor can stay with the prisoner for any time period over the allotted visiting hours. Basically, there are local processes, regarding searches, opening hours, people permitted to visit and many more. It is recommended that people who are not familiar with the processes to contact the prison in advance regarding their visit. The visits enable the prisoners to see and share with their families and friends and hence they are not entirely separated from their loved ones (McGowan 2006). The prisoners who are serving sentences in Irish prisons are permitted to send two letters a week. Moreover, additional letters to family member or to representatives can be permitted on request. A prisoner who is waiting the trial can send any amount of letters she/he pleases and all prisoners are not restricted on the number of letters to send. However, within the closed prisons, both incoming and outgoing letters are censored, with the exemption of legal mail, which is normally opened to verify its category and the put back in the envelope. Within the open prisons, outgoing letters are not censored; usually, prisoners open their letters in presence of a prison official and if there is money, it is given to the prison official who credits the money to the prisoner’s tuck-shop account. Allowing the prisoners to send and receive letters enables them to communicate with other people in the society and also ensures that all prisoners maintain contact with their loved ones. It also gives the prisoner an opportunity to socialize with other community members (McGowan 2004). All Irish prisons have both probation and welfare services. The Welfare Service tackles a broad range of individual and family problems for the prisoners and offers counseling for alcohol, drugs and other social difficulties. The Welfare Service within the prison also had a chief responsibility beside other discipline in the sex criminals in addition to drug treatment programs. Welfare prison official normally have the prisoners’ families contacts and arrange for home visits if necessary. This ensures any prisoner who may be going through a difficult period is offered the appropriate service and ensures that the prisoners are comfortable while in custody. Moreover, this ensures personal development for the prisoners as they are provided with the appropriate counseling (Samuel 2009). Irish prisoners are also provided with rehabilitation services. The prisoners are encouraged to take part in therapeutic service during imprisonment and this decreases the risk of the committing a crime after the release. There are several rehabilitative services that are offered to prisoners and this includes education, probation and welfare, drug management, psychology and work and training. This enables the prisoners to live productive and meaningful lives after being released. Furthermore, it also provides the prisoner with skills as well as professionalism and this equips the prisoners with the necessary skills to even find a job after being released from the custody. It also ensures that the prisoners are developed transformed to become important and productive society members (McGowan 2004). The Irish prison system also offers chaplaincy services to the prisoners. In every Irish prison, there is a chaplaincy service. In Limerick, Portlaoise, Midlands, Castlerea and Dublin prisons, there are full-time Catholic chaplains while in Loughan House there are part-time Catholic chaplains. Chaplains from other denominations also go to the prisons and the Muslim prisoners are attended by local Muslim religious leaders. The chaplaincy services avails the religious services to the prisoners and also provides support and assistance to the prisoners’ human and spiritual development. Moreover, different religious groups being attended by their respective religious leaders ensures that there is equality in all religious groups and no religious group is discriminated in getting their spiritual development (McGowan 2004). Most of the Irish prisoners are entitled remission quarterly, if they conduct themselves in the appropriate manner. This implies that a prisoner service a four year sentence in prison will serve a three year imprisonment. This promotes a positive change amongst the prisoners. The prisoners who violate prison discipline lose some privileges such as visits, recreation or remission for a given time. This also motivates the prisoners to behave in the best manner and hence it helps them in developing positively. Finally, Irish prisons are monitored by the visiting committee which is an independent body which supervises how prisoners are treated on behalf of the public. The prisons freely access the visiting committees and can inform them on any injustice, mistreatment of discrimination act that they face while in prison. The visiting committee provides the minister with the report. This ensures that all prisoners are treated equally and no injustices are committed against them while in prison. Moreover it assists the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law reform to implement any changes in Irish prisons to ensure that the Irish prison system is fair to all prisoners and that the prisoners are handled and treated in the appropriate manner (Samuel 2009). Bibliography Irish Prison Service., 2007, Irish Prison Service, Stationery Office, Marshalsea. McGowan, J., 2004, The Irish prison service, University of Glasgow, Glasgow. McGowan, J., 2006, The Irish prison service in transition, University of Glasgow, Glasgow. Samuel, N., 2009, Crime & justice international, University of Illinois, Chicago. Read More