Mountjoy drug-free unit to open later this month

A drug-free unit is to open at Mountjoy Prison as part of a major refurbishment programme at the Dublin jail, with similar drug-free units to open in all closed prisons by the end of the year.

The move was announced by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter after a visit to the prison yesterday.

The Mountjoy drug-free unit is part of a refurbishment of the C division at the prison, which is almost complete and will be opened later this month.

As part of the building programme, cells in the division have been refurbished with in-cell sanitation.

Mr Shatter said that when the refurbished area opens and a similar process is undergone at the prison’s B division later this year, it will mean 317 cells at the prison will have in-cell sanitation. This, he said, would bring slopping out to an end for 60 per cent of prisoners.

Parts of Mountjoy Prison have been officially condemned decades ago as being unfit for habitation. However, with the mothballing of the long-mooted Thornton Hall super prison in north Co Dublin that was to replace Mountjoy, the facility on the North Circular Road is being improved for the long term.