The High Court has ruled that the exercise yard attached to Mountjoy Prison's Challenging Behaviour Unit did not provide the open-air exercise required by the Prison Rules 2007.
Jason Whelan brought judicial review proceedings after spending almost two months in the unit following serious breaches of prison discipline in October 2013. He had thrown a bucket of slop over a prison officer and damaged his cell by pulling a sink from the wall.
While in the unit, Whelan was generally confined to a single-occupancy cell for 23 hours a day. He complained that the area offered for his daily exercise was a cage-like covered structure rather than an outdoor yard.
By the time the case was heard, Whelan had returned to the general prison population. His request for an order compelling the governor to provide outdoor exercise was therefore moot. However, the High Court held that his separate claim for a declaration remained live because he was still imprisoned and could realistically be returned to the unit following further disciplinary breaches.
Ms Justice Murphy examined photographs and dimensions of the exercise area. It had a solid roof, one brick wall and three sheet-metal walls, with steel mesh high above head level allowing some light and air inside. She described it as resembling a large holding cell.
The governor argued that security concerns, including the risk of drugs and contraband being passed into the yard, justified the design and that prison management decisions attracted a broad discretion.
The court accepted that prison governors have wide management powers but held that those powers must operate within the Prison Rules. Rule 32(1) gives prisoners a mandatory entitlement to at least one hour of exercise in the open air each day, weather permitting.
The judge held that "open air" carried its ordinary meaning. At minimum, a prisoner should be able to look up and see the sky and experience the elements. The CBU exercise area did not meet that standard. The court said it would hear the parties on the precise terms of the declaration to be made.