Legal concerns on prison segregation
Legal concerns may surround the Government’s new proposals for isolation units within prisons for alleged drug barons, it emerged tonight.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell aims to house suspected traffickers awaiting trial in a new 20-person cell in west Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison.
Inmates of the piloted units will have restricted visits and a separate exercise yard to block the circulation of drugs and sharing of information.
Concerns have been expressed that if information about such segregated accommodation is given to juries before trials, it may prejudice their judgments or lead to other challenges by defence lawyers.
“It may convey a certain impression in the minds of the jury so it is very important that jurors don’t find out in advance,” said NUIG law professor Tom O’Malley.
Judges may be forced to impose media restrictions on reporting any information on whether an accused was housed in an isolation unit.
Prof. O’Malley said that the general proposals should be constitutionally sound as they will have been already vetted by the attorney general’s office.
The isolation units are part of anti-racketeering laws due to be published later this month to clamp down on serious organised crime.
The measures are seen as a direct response by the Government to the recent wave of gangland killings, which totalled 27 in 2006.
As part of the minister’s proposals, an extra 1,000 Garda posts will be created, the Garda Reserve will be expanded and 300 Garda jobs will be civilianised.
The proposed anti-racketeering legislation has been compared to the Rico (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations) Act introduced in the US in the late 1970s to combat the Mafia.
Mr McDowell said last month that he also wants to consider allowing courts to convict a person of handling the proceeds of crime if they are found with large amounts of cash and cannot explain themselves.
Other proposals being considered by the Government include extending the laws limiting the right to silence, which currently apply to terrorist charges only.
The change would allow courts in gun and drugs cases to infer from a person’s decision to remain silent that they had been involved in specific crimes.
