Former prison inmates who were kept in solitary confinement during the jail’s Covid lockdown are set to take the government to court.

Advocate Ian Kermode is leading a potential class action against the Department of Home Affairs alleging negligence and breaches of human rights.

Four law firms are involved in the civil case, representing at least 10 prisoners and ex-prisoners. They are seeking compensation in a case which, if successful, will be the first of its kind in a generation.

The last time the government was held to be in breach of Article 3 Convention of Human Rights was over the use of birching in 1979.

Mr Kermode said a pre-action letter of claim on behalf of all clients is to be served ’imminently’.

All remedies include a potential class action for breach of Article 3 - the absolute right not to be subject to inhuman or degrading treatment - are ’currently under active consideration’, he said.

The DHA said it will ’vigorously’ contest any action taken against it.

Since Covid arrived in the island, all new detainees arriving at the jail, including those jailed for breaching emergency powers regulations but also those remanded but not convicted of any offence, have been held on an isolation wing for up to 14 days.

There have been three different regimes at the prison during lockdown, with the second and most restrictive one introduced on April 19 as a result of detainee testing positive for Covid.

Under this ’red’ lockdown regime, those on the isolation wing were held 24 hours a day in solitary confinement in the cells.

They were not allowed any showers or outdoor exercise.

Food for the next 24 hours was provided in a single delivery and inmates were denied visits or calls to friends and family for the two weeks.

This regime was only relaxed when Mr Kermode raised his concerns about the ’cruel, degrading and potentially unlawful’ treatment of prisoners with the UK Justice Secretary.

Mr Kermode said the Department of Home Affairs’ first response had been to dismiss his claims as ’quite simply wrong’.

But in the House of Keys on May 15 Home Affairs Minister Graham Cregeen confirmed details of the red regime which was in place for 14 days until health professionals advised the extreme danger of the virus spreading had been reduced.

Mr Kermode, who is representing six clients including one woman in the potential class action, said: ’The prison is there to punish but also to rehabilitate.

’There is no rehabilitation when you are locked in your cell for two weeks with no showers and no exercise and your food for the day is plonked in the cell.’

He said during the red lockdown, prisoners on the other wings were allowed out of their cells for three quarters of an hour.

regime

Mr Cregeen told the Keys in May that under the ’red’ regime, inmates had a shower on reception and were provided with items to allow them to wash from the sink in their cell.

They were not allowed to exercise but an in-cell exercise pack was provided.

Drinking water was available in the cell, he said, and mobile phones were provided on request to contact advocate, while messages and letter could be passed to families.

Mr Cregeen said this regime was relaxed on the advice of health professionals when the prison no longer had a Covid-positive detainee.

’No detainee, irrespective of their offence, has been subject to degrading or inhumane treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Isle of Man Prison, either prior to or during the current emergency,’ he said.

The Minister gave further details to the Keys on June 2 to ’provide clarity’.

He said he maximum time any offender spent on the isolation wing was 14 days and most spent less time than that because of time in police custody.

Mr Cregeen said only those who had other offences such as assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, drugs, theft, alongside breaching of emergency powers spent the whole 14 days in isolation ahead of going to the main prison.

Detainees still go into isolation on arrival, but showers and exercise are allowed and in-cell mobile phones are now available.

In a statement, the DHA said: ’The department took action to protect staff, prisoners and their families during the global pandemic.

’The department rejects claims that prisoners’ human rights were breached in doing so and intends to vigorously contest action taken against it in this regard.’