LAST UPDATE | 27 Apr 2022

NEW RESEARCH HAS found the migrant, foreign national and minority ethnic groups in Ireland’s prisons experience significant challenges including discrimination by both staff and inmates.

The research, conducted by a team from Maynooth University for the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), found foreign national and minority ethnic communities are over represented in the Irish penal system and their rights and needs are often overlooked.

Although the report found that the positive interactions with penal staff outweighed the negative ones, there were examples of discrimination given during interviews with prisoners and professional stakeholders such as prison officers and governors, monitoring bodies and community organisations that work in prisons.

One professional stakeholder interviewee observed that he had “witnessed instances” of what he would consider to be “racially abusive behaviour by individual prison officers in terms of unnecessary aggression, rudeness… name calling” and “behaviour that you wouldn’t really see manifested from one white Irish prison officer to a white Irish inmate”.

Another professional stakeholder interviewee claimed that it is the “prison officers who are stoking up anti-Traveller sentiment… amongst prisoners”.

A prisoner who was interviewed as part of the report stated that “racist comments
and put downs” from prison staff were often “cloaked in banter”.

IPRT acting executive director Molly Joyce said any form of discrimination, overt or otherwise, must be tackled as a priority.

“Mandatory anti-racism training, alongside robust data collection and monitoring, are ways that racism can be addressed but training cannot be a once-off exercise, it must be embedded in prison practices and cultures,” she said.

Joyce also said that while the vast majority of foreign national and minority ethnic individuals do not come into contact with the penal system, the research indicates that these groups are disproportionately represented both in prison and on probation in Ireland.

“As well as an over representation, the research identifies – in respect of certain offences – significant differences in average sentencing outcomes for foreign nationals and people of an ethnicity other than White,” she said.

Sentencing differences were observed for controlled drug offences (32 months versus 23.1 months) and sexual offences (68 months versus 52.1 months) with foreign nationals receiving longer sentences in both offences than Irish nationals.

“While this could indicate potential bias in the criminal justice system, the lack of comprehensive data collection by State agencies means we cannot be sure, nor can we more thoroughly examine these apparent disparities,” Joyce said.

“This is yet another example where deficient data leads to a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation, which in turn inevitably leads to deficient responses.”

Read more here on how you can support a major Noteworthy project – now over 85% funded – to find out if Travellers experience harsher interactions with the Irish law and prison system.