CATHOLICS RECEIVE fewer privileges within the Northern Ireland prison system, a new report has found.
The Criminal Justice Inspection survey found that the prison service, which has an 80 per cent Protestant workforce, affords Catholic inmates less television and telephone access and free association with others within the system.
The report said it was important that the criminal justice system “is able to demonstrate fairness”.
It claimed to have “identified a weakness in relation to this within each criminal justice agency, but most accurately across the system as a whole”.
It added: “This will require a concerted system-wide effort to effect change.”
Dr Michael Maguire, chief inspector of criminal justice in Northern Ireland, said: “The report highlights the importance of collecting timely, relevant and comprehensive information.” He added: “There is a question to be answered as to why the religion of a prisoner would have an impact on the regime that they experience within the prison service.”
The report calls for the criminal justice system to improve the manner in which people who come into contact with it are monitored for equality purposes, for an annual publication containing equality data to be published, for the establishment of a consultative forum on criminal justice matters, and for increased efforts to “secure a reflective workforce across the system”.
It also made a number of specific recommendations for the prison service, the probation board and the youth justice agency.
Chief executive of the equality commission, Evelyn Collins, said: “We will consider the detail of the report . . . and anticipate that this will inform our . . . work with the relevant organisations.”