The Department of Justice has said it refused permission for an Amnesty International research project in Irish prisons, only because a similar project was already being conducted by an independent body.
It was responding to comments made by an Amnesty member in a letter to The Irish Times yesterday. The letter said the decision placed Ireland "in the company of Israel, Turkey, China and Egypt".
The Department spokesman said Amnesty had sought access to study the issue of racism in prisons. The project was a follow-up to the organisation's anti-racism awareness campaign last year, and would have been conducted in conjunction with the Irish Penal Reform Trust.
The request was refused, however, because a study of racism in prisons by the National Training and Development Institute was already under way.
The Department said that, based on recommendations made by the group, a new training programme would be devised by a separate company, which itself would be open to independent evaluation. All the findings would be made available to Amnesty and the Penal Reform Trust.
A spokeswoman for Amnesty said the organisation did not wish to comment further at this time.
