Prison report highlights ease of drugs supply

The visiting committee of the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise has urged the authorities to draft in gardaí and soldiers to patrol the perimeter fence to cut the supply of drugs getting into the jail.

In its annual report for 2002, the committee notes: "Drugs are currently being tossed into the yard, when such an instance occurs, prisoners rush for them; staff do not intervene.

"In most cases, inmates hide drugs that come over the wall in their bodies, and every effort is made by management to redeem them and take appropriate action".

While the visiting rooms were well monitored, with few drugs being passed to prisoners, two exercise yards were not drug free. Because the yards were adjacent to waste ground, people known to the prisoners were throwing drugs into the yards.

The oversight in design had created an "acute" problem for prison management which was exhausting personnel and financial resources.

The committee was critical of the complete absence of any drug treatment programme in the prison, despite a "guestimate" that 80 per cent of the inmates were imprisoned for drug related offences.

Methadone is only supplied to prisoners who are transferred to the prison from other facilities, where they were being supplied the heroin replacement.

Addicts who start their sentences at the midlands prison "can go on a de-tox programme and get librium for about two weeks". They are then accommodated at cells on landings where fellow inmates are using drugs.

While a psychiatrist had previously been available to see prisoners two days per week, "insurance difficulties" had resulted in the service being withdrawn. The committee said the absence of any psychiatric service was "totally unacceptable".

Last November, just two years after the €58 million prison was reopened, it was decided ventilation was so poor that all of the windows in prison cells would have to be replaced, at a cost of €1 million.

The report notes while liability for the "faux pas" had not yet been determined, the Department of Justice should pay "particular attention" because the windows were specifically designed to permit maximum light and allow "maximum dependence on natural ventilation".

Another area of concern regarding design was the prison's bakery. The room used was later found to be too small and had poor ventilation. It was finally dismantled. The amount, £150,000 (€190,000) spent on equipment was "a grave waste of money".

The committee also concludes one of the prison's four wings "has all the hallmarks of an afterthought".

It does not have the facilities needed for prisoner development, a situation which has lead to "problems for management and prisoners".

Another structural shortcoming was poor acoustics in classrooms, "where echoes cause difficulties". Around 60 per cent of inmates have poor literacy and numeracy levels.

It concludes support for prisoners nearing the end of their sentences was almost non-existent.