Report: ‘Access to Justice: Legal Pathways to Justice for the Rights of People in Prison’

3rd December 2024

On 3 December 2024, Dr Amina Adanan published a report entitled, ‘Access to Justice: Legal Pathways to Justice for the Rights of People in Prison’. The purpose of this work is to explore the law and practice of public interest prison litigation in Ireland, examining the obstacles and issues that are present and the factors that contribute to this overlooked area of law. This research was funded by the Irish Research Council. Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) was the civic society project partner for this research. This report is authored by Dr Amina Adanan with the research assistance of Andrea Pownall, both of Maynooth University.
 
Access to justice, or the right of access to legal remedies, is a fundamental norm of human rights law, guaranteed by European and international human rights law. This right is particularly important for marginalised and disadvantaged groups in society (including those in penal detention) who do not have the financial resources necessary to access the courts system in relation to civil law matters, such as human rights breaches. The pathways between social disadvantage, poverty, addiction, poor mental health, lack of education, adverse childhood experiences, time spent in State care and committal to prison are well documented in this jurisdiction and in others. These factors contribute to the over-representation of socially disadvantaged groups in Irish prisons, in line with similar statistics in penal populations abroad.
 
One of the ways that human rights breaches experienced in prison (for example, in relation to prison conditions) can be addressed is through public interest law. Public interest law is generally accepted as falling within the field of public law, as a ‘way of working with the law for the benefit of vulnerable and disadvantaged people’ (Cousins, 2005). Notwithstanding the notable public interest cases that advance the rights of disadvantaged groups in Ireland, and the positive impact that some prison law cases have had, the rights of people in prison remain under-litigated in this jurisdiction. Previous research by IPRT identified that there is a need for an increase in public interest litigation to advance the rights of people in prison in Ireland. Using mixed method research methodologies (doctrinal research and 26 semi-structured interviews), this report identifies and examines the barriers and issues that arise in public interest prison law in order to shed light on this topic and to identify areas for reform. In doing so, the research illustrates a web of interconnected problems that inhibit prisoner rights issues from being addressed in a legally effective way that protects the rights of those affected. These barriers include, and are not limited to, difficulties in accessing Civil Legal Aid (including operational barriers within the Civil Legal Aid and Legal Aid-Custody Issues schemes), blocks in accessing legal information and legal representation, the general difficulty in prison law litigation, and deference to State authority.

This report concludes with 9 recommendations in the area of:

(A) Reform of Civil Legal Aid and access to information for people in prison.
(B) Necessary reforms in the legal system.
(C) Access to justice in the management and operation of prisons.
(D) The prioritisation of the State’s ratification of OPCAT.
(E) Embedding prison law in legal education.

• Read the report Access to Justice: Legal Pathways to Justice for the Rights of People in Prison on the Maynooth University website.