A jailed heroin addict is being subject to "cruel and unusual punishment" as a result of the State's failure to place him on a drug treatment and rehabilitation programme, the High Court was told yesterday.
Because he has not secured rehabiliation treatment and is therefore unable to access methadone, the man, who has been a chronic addict since 1990 and has also been diagnosed with hepatitis C, says he is continuing to use heroin regularly in prison and has shared needles with other prisoners.
As a result, he has severe health problems. The man claims he vomits daily, often vomiting blood, his eyes are heavily bloodshot, his body is covered with needle marks and cuts and he is losing the sight in his left eye. He has had major dental extractions and has recently suffered broken bones and fractures.
In court yesterday, Ms Ivana Bacik read an affidavit in which the man said he was 32 years old and has two young daughters, aged seven and 12. His two brothers had both died from heroin-related causes.
One of his brothers had left behind five children who were being cared for by the man's mother. His sister is also an addict. His parents marriage had broken down due to the strain of those matters.
The man said he was serving an eight-year sentence for burglary, robbery and criminal damage, to which offences he had pleaded guilty. His sentence was backdated to October 22nd, 1999. He was in Mountjoy Prison until October 16th last when he was moved to the Midlands Prison.
The man said he had applied three times for a place on the drug treatment programme in Mountjoy but was refused each time.
The continuing failure to provide him with a place on the programme in the Midlands Prison was a breach of his constitutional rights, amounted to "cruel and unusual punishment" of him, and was a breach of the respondents' constitutional obligations to vindicate the man's constitutional rights, including the right to bodily integrity.
Mr Justice ╙ Caoimh said the matter was clearly urgent and he would adopt a procedure aimed at having the case speedily addressed. He directed that the Chief State Solicitor be served with notice of the man's application for leave to take judicial review proceedings aimed at securing him a place on the drug treatment programme.
Returning the matter to tomorrow morning, the judge told Ms Bacik that if there was no adequate response from the State authorities, he would grant leave for the taking of judicial-review proceedings.
