The Irish Times has published an editorial on the Irish prison system. Excerpts follow:
The Irish prison system is a monument to long years of administrative and government failures. The extent of the problem finds echoes in refusals by the Department of Justice and the Minister’s office to meet and provide information to their own visiting committee at Mountjoy Jail. The latest report from that body identifies an emerging gang culture, drug taking, overcrowding and a lack of rehabilitation facilities as serious problems. In view of the economic downturn and the sentencing practices of judges, the situation can only get worse …
[P]risons and the way they function have come to reflect the needs of the service suppliers, rather than the welfare of clients. In that context, an overcrowded prison system provides justification for a new building programme, for overtime and for high numbers of staff …
For the past 10 years, Fine Gael has been harassing the Government to introduce legislation that would keep people out of jail for the non-payment of fines or debts. Instead, money would be deducted from pay or social welfare incomes. That would free-up some 2,000 prison places a year. In the same way, prison chaplains have complained that the system is being used as a dumping ground for individuals with psychiatric illnesses. The Norwegian system, involving “composite” judicial orders concerning probationary and community services, linked to counselling and periods of electronic tagging, could halve the number of future inmates …
We need to break from the failed policies of the past. How many more reports, setting out the dysfunctional nature of the prison system, will be required before a programme of offender rehabilitation is adopted in preference to the crude one of incarceration?
It is facile to represent such change as being “soft on crime”, but that will not stop some vested interests from doing so. We cannot afford to persevere with a “lock-em-up and throw away the key” mentality. That has led to failure.
vericatrajkova Europe, INTERNATIONAL, Ireland
Overcrowding has become such an issue in Irish prisons that as many as five men can be locked in one cell at Mountjoy for up to 23 hours at a time, according to a new report.
The 2008 annual report from the country’s prison chaplains expresses grave concerns over overcrowding, which it said causes severe stress on all the services within the prison system and “is one of the most urgent problems needing to be addressed”. The report calls for the postponement of the construction of a new prison at Thornton Hall in Dublin in order to consider other ways of dealing with offenders and says that a rethink of the entire prison system is essential, not just for prisoners but also for the wider society.
In the annual report, prison chaplains argue that smaller more rehabilitative prisons are the way forward. “Smaller prisons, situated in local communities as close to home as possible for those needing to be imprisoned, would facilitate a more humane approach for prisoners and their families,” it said. The study includes a number of other recommendations including the putting in place of alternatives to prison for those who fail to pay fines or are unable to settle debts, and the provision of rehabilitative centres for those who suffer with addictions. Prison chaplains also recommended offering proper health care for mentally ill prisoners. “Prison is not the place to deal with addictions, secure treatment centres are. Research has shown that imprisonment may compound the issues that lead many to offend sexually. Treatment centres in the community are not only more cost effective but they are more beneficial to society in the long term. Homelessness is not addressed by imprisonment. It is merely a temporary solution and in many cases can lead to further homelessness,” said the report. “With the annual average cost of imprisonment running at, in the region of €100, 000 per person per year, with poor results the alternatives could be provided within the same budget and with greater effectiveness,” it adds …
“If the prisoners fail to get a chance to improve their lives while being detained, we are not just failing them — but also their victims and wider communities,” said head chaplain, Sr Imelda Wickham at the launch of the report. She said that prisons are necessary for those who commit serious crimes, but overcrowding, mainly with petty criminals, homeless and mentally ill people, was leading to an impossible situation where prisoners have no hope of rehabilitation.
vericatrajkova Europe, Ireland, Overcrowding, Re-Entry
Almost a quarter of all inmates in Irish prisons are guarded under special protective custody arrangements because of increasing inter-gang violence.
Out of a total prison population of 3,200 people, there are now an unprecedented 768 prisoners receiving special protection, causing major logistical problems for the Irish Prison Service (IPS). In some prisons, over half the inmates are receiving 23-hour lock-up protection to guard against the likelihood that they will be attacked by rival prisoners.
The situation is most acute in Wheatfield in Dublin, where 58 per cent of the prison’s 370 prisoners are in protective care. Of the 446 inmates in the Midlands Prison, which houses some of the state’s most notorious offenders, 223 prisoners are in special custody for their own protection. Special protection is also being given to 80 prisoners in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, representing a fifth of the inmates. Feuding between gangs in Limerick has spread to gangs in Dublin and a Mountjoy prison officer was injured in a riot there last month. ut of 433 inmates in Dublin’s Cloverhill jail, 112 are in protective custody, while 66 inmates at Cork’s 255-capacity prison are also under special protective guard.
A large number of those in protective custody are gang members. However, it is understood that a significant number are ordinary prisoners who have sought special protection due to increasing levels of violence in the prison system.
vericatrajkova Gangs (STGs), Ireland, Protective Custody
With only 3,200 inmates, the Irish Prison Service has totaled 40,000 positive drug tests in just three years.
The new data reveal no reduction in drug consumption in prisons since the launch in late 2004 of the Government’s drug-free prison policy. The number of tests carried out has actually fallen since the policy was launched. Most of those inmates who tested positive across the system were positive for a cocktail of drugs. Some 33,779 of the positive tests were for cannabis, 26,584 for benzodiazepines, 25,346 for opiates, 2,017 for cocaine, 850 for alcohol and 620 for amphetamines …
The rate of positive tests across the prison population has remained at about the same levels in the past three years. Of the 25,362 tests carried out in the first nine months of last year, 36 per cent were positive for traces of banned substances. In 2006, 25,276 tests were carried out, with 37 per cent giving positive results. In 2005 some 37,288 tests were carried out, with 47 per cent testing positive.
More details in the Irish Times and again here.
vericatrajkova Ireland