Solitary Watch - An Irish court has blocked a U.S. extradition request because of the conditions of solitary confinement the accused could face if sent to the United States.
Ireland’s High Court determined there was a real risk that Irish citizen Ali Charaf Damache would be incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum in Florence, Colorado, and that detention conditions at the prison breach Irish constitutional protections.
“The institutionalization of solitary confinement with its routine isolation from meaningful contact and communication with staff and other inmates, for a prolonged pre-determined period of at least 18 months and continuing almost certainly for many years, amounts to a breach of the constitutional requirement to protect persons from inhuman and degrading treatment and to respect the dignity of the human being,” Justice Aileen Donnelly wrote in her judgment delivered on May 21.
In reaching its conclusions to quash the extradition, the Court cited Irish case law that has established that “a prisoner should not be totally or substantially deprived of the society of fellow humans for anything other than relatively brief and clearly defined periods.” Indefinite detention in solitary confinement is prohibited under Ireland’s Constitution and case law has established that solitary confinement can result in a form of sensory deprivation that is “inhumane and abusive of the prisoner’s psychological welfare.”
It is believed to be one of the first cases where the courts have denied a U.S. extradition request based on prison conditions the individual would likely face if extradited. Previously, refusals of extraditions to the U.S. were limited to cases when the accused could face the death penalty or if the alleged offense was of a political nature.
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