PRISON VISITING committees, some of whose recent annual reports were highly critical of conditions they had witnessed in Irish jails, have seen their numbers depleted by more than half.
Since Minister for Justice and Defence Alan Shatter took office, he has opted not to reappoint or replace those committee members whose terms expired last year despite the posts being unpaid.
Most committees now have fewer members than the minimum six laid down in legislation. In some cases, the number of members has fallen below the three needed to form a quorum for a meeting.
The fall-off in members has reduced the number of times the committees have been able to visit the jails to inspect conditions and investigate prisoner complaints.
The chairman of the visiting committee in Mountjoy Prison, Stephen Langton, questioned why Mr Shatter had allowed numbers fall so significantly. He was also critical of the lack of consultation or information being provided by the Government.
Mr Langton said while Mr Shatter and his officials were working on a new system for prison visiting committees, which will more closely align them with the office of the director of prisons, he questioned why the existing committees could not have been left at full strength until the new system was ready.
“They’ve allowed the numbers to really deplete in the past months. Why is that? When are these new ideas going to come to fruition?”
At the end of February 2011, just before the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition took office, all of the 14 institutions in the Republic’s prison system had between seven and 11 members, with total membership reaching 119.
However, since then, members whose terms have expired have not been reappointed or replaced. This has led to a situation where total combined membership of the committees has dropped to 49 members.
There are now only three jails – Castlerea in Roscommon, Cloverhill in Dublin, and Portlaoise in Laois – where numbers are still at or above the minimum six members set down in the Prisons (Visiting Committees) Act.
In six of the 14 jails, numbers on visiting committees are now so low that they do not have the necessary three members needed for a quorum to hold a meeting.
These include: Arbour Hill sex offenders’ prison in Dublin, with two members; the Dóchas Centre women’s prison in Dublin (two members); Limerick Prison (two members); Loughan House open prison in Co Cavan (two members); Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow (one member); and the training unit in Dublin’s Mountjoy campus (two members).
A number of years ago visiting committees attracted a lot of negative media attention because many of their members were seen as being close to Fianna Fáil. Individuals were often appointed by the minister for justice of the day to committees in jails very far from their homes.
This led to much comment that such appointments were made as a favour to those linked to the party and as a means of maximising mileage payments for travelling to and from any given jail.
However, under former minister for justice Michael McDowell, a policy was adapted of appointing people to committees to visit prisons as close to their homes as possible, thus minimising mileage payments.
Mr Langton said the “vast majority” of those who were ever members of visiting committees had a genuine interest in the work.
In recent years, there was no way the accusation could be levelled with any credibility that the committees were a vehicle to generate mileage.
“We go in announced and unannounced and visit the jails to check the standards of the accommodation and raise concerns about anything we see with any aspect of the prisons,” he said.
“We also are very often the only people that a lot of prisoners will raise their concerns with, and that’s a very important role.
“A lot of prisoners won’t talk about their personal issues to prison officers or management, and they won’t even talk to other prisoners who’ve been made trustee prisoners.”
PRISON VISITING COMMITTEES: THEIR ROLE AND FUTURE
UNDER THE Prisons (Visiting Committees) Act, prison visiting committees should have at least six members and no more than 12.
Members are appointed by the minister for justice of the day and when their service periods expire, usually after three years, they have always been reappointed or replaced.
However, their work has always been independent of the minister.
Committees visit jails to listen to prisoner complaints, inspect any part of a jail or examine any aspect of a jail’s management.
They can raise concerns with senior staff or with the minister.
Each committee compiles an annual report for the minister which is published, though usually very late – in the closing months of the following year.
Under plans being formulated by his officials, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is planning a marriage of sorts between prison visiting committees and the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly.
As part of the proposals, committees will comprise a maximum of six members. They will report every two months to the Inspector of Prisons.
In response to queries on the issue, Mr Shatter said: “Only suitable people with appropriate qualifications and a genuine interest in prison issues will be appointed. The department is examining how this can be achieved.
“Ultimately, the Inspector [of Prisons] will have independent oversight of the prison visiting committees’ work.”
The department was unable to provide comparative figures for the number of visits to each jail in 2010, when the committees were at full strength, and in 2011, when numbers were depleted.
However, a number of sources told The Irish Timesthe depletion in the number of committee members meant most committees were not in a position to carry out their work at anything close to the level they had traditionally.