PRESS RELEASE
HARTE COYLE COLLINS
SOLICITORS & ADVOCATES
12th SEPTEMBER 2024
COURT DECLARES HEALTHCARE TRUST FAILURE TO PRESCRIBE SUBSTITUTE DRUG TREATMENT TO PRISONER IN MAGHABERRY AMOUNTS TO INHUMAN DEGRADING TREATMENT, DISCRIMINATION AND BREACH OF PRIVACY
The High Court today delivered a radical judgment in a judicial review challenge against the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust criticising the extreme delay a prisoner faced in being assessed for and getting access to the Opiate Substitute Treatment while a prisoner in Maghaberry jail. The court found that the absence of appropriate healthcare in the prison by the Trust amounted to inhuman degrading treatment, discrimination, and a breach of right to private and family life.
The rights in issue included the client’s right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment under Art 3 ECHR; his right to private life (Art 8 ECHR); and his right not to be discriminated against because he was a prisoner (Art 14 ECHR). The court declared that all 3 Convention Articles had been breached.
Having been deprived of assessment and access to the opiate substitute treatment our client complained that he was detained in conditions which were not compatible with respect for human dignity and that he was treated unjustifiably differently, in comparison to those in the community seeking Opiate Substitute Treatment who are in similar position, because he was a prisoner.
Mr. Justice McAlinden, in a detailed, comprehensive, and carefully considered judgment, granted the prisoner a Declaration under the Human Rights Act 1998 that his Human Rights were breached as a result of the conditions in which he was detained within the Northern Ireland prison estate. The prisoner applicant had still not been assessed for the treatment by the time of he was released, having waited over 3 years to be assessed. The High Court was provided with confirmation that once the applicant was released he was assessed and prescribed Opiate Substitute Therapy within 3 weeks.
The High Court judgment today represents a welcome vindication of our client’s human rights and reflects what is an alarming state of affairs regarding prisoner access to addictions treatment within prisons in Northern Ireland.
Solicitor acting for the successful applicant Chris McCann said today;
“This High Court judgment today is a welcome vindication of our client’s human rights and indeed the rights of all those in prison with substance addiction. It shines a light on the inefficiencies of the prison healthcare provided by the Trust. This case has highlighted the alarming state of affairs within the Northern Ireland Prison estate with regards to prisoner access to healthcare. Prisoners are entitled to the same level of healthcare that they would receive in the community, yet this is not being delivered, causing unnecessary pain and suffering to prisoners with a knock-on effect to the public at large.
We hope that this brave judgment brings focus to the funding needs for addictions treatment within the prisons in Northern Ireland.”
If prisoners with addiction issues are assessed and treated in prison and are appropriately medicated on a substitute program and are therefore stable when released, then the risk of them causing harm to the public is greatly diminished. In our view it is in everyone’s interest, both for society and the prison population, that prisoners are able to avail of appropriate addictions treatment while in custody.”
The client was represented by Harte Coyle Collins Prison Law Solicitor Chris McCann, Senior Counsel Desmond Hutton K.C and Junior Counsel Mark O’Hara B.L.
Contact
Chris McCann
Harte Coyle Collins
9-15 Queen Street
Belfast
BT1 6EA
02890 278227
