IPS respond to Portlaoise pictures with investigation instead of improvement

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Wednesday October 28, 2015 19:34 by Concerned

Prisoners call on the Department of Justice to make public a recent prison doctors report that highlights the dangers prisoners are exposed too, legionnaire’s disease for example and other serious respiratory health risks due to the extremely poor conditions.

Wash area

IPS respond to Portlaoise pictures with investigation instead of improvement

We very much welcome the publication of photos in the Irish Star 23-10-15. The photos are damming evidence and clearly highlight the appalling, degrading and unhygienic conditions of E-Block Portlaoise Prison, in which Republican Prisoners are forced to live.

Alongside the many damming reports over the years by the Prison Inspectorate indicating very clearly that E-Block should be demolished as it is not fit for human habitation; the photos now confirm and justify what the prisoners over many years of protesting have tried to highlight. We also want to ask the same people who came out and condemned the protests over the years, now condemn, based on the photographic evidence, the negligence of the IPS or will they turn a blind eye and condone what is taking place in Portlaoise Prison.

We also say to the IPS, instead of wasting time investigating how a camera may or may not have been smuggled into the prison, their time would be better spent trying to rectify a deplorable situation that should be condemned. This type of investigation only illustrates where their priorities lie, security before health and well being.

We also call on the Department of Justice to make public a recent prison doctors report that highlights the dangers prisoners are exposed too, legionnaire’s disease for example and other serious respiratory health risks due to the extremely poor conditions.

Cogús POWs

Portlaoise Gaol, E2.