'When they have you in there as a young fella they should do something with you'

INTERVIEW:From the age of 15 years, one Dublin criminal encountered a cruel regime in St Patrick's Institution during which he lost control of a life that would become dominated by chaos and drugs

“YOU GO in when you’re young; I was only 15 at the time. So your mind can be moulded anyway if they treat you right.

“But it’s filthy and freezing and they have you doing things like shovelling cement and scrubbing out piss pots instead of actually learning something to get a job with when you got out.

“Once when I stepped out of line and refused to do the work, one guard, a huge bloke, got me and battered me.”

So a former prisoner at St Patrick’s Institution begins to recall his story. From Finglas in Dublin, Fran ran away from family problems at home when he was 15 years old and soon ended up behind bars.

“At first I was breaking into places at night; houses or offices or whatever. I’d be looking for money or stuff to sell to get money. And because I was homeless I’d be looking for somewhere to sleep.

“But eventually you get caught and then the few charges started to mount up and I ended up going into St Patrick’s.

“I’d have to say that the atmosphere wasn’t bad between the lads. There’d be a bit of fighting but you’re going to get that.

“The biggest problems were the place was a kip and you never got no respect from the guards; nothing. You are bored out of your brain and so if there’s a few tablets around you’re going to take them.

“That was my first contact with drugs, when I was in St Patrick’s. So after a while taking them I needed medical treatment in there. So then they’re giving you stuff – Valium, tranquillisers and all that.”

“After a while I got addicted and then out of the blue I was released, no warning or planning for it, nothing like that. So I was released and addicted to the tablets and I was homeless. After a while I went on to the heroin.”

Fran said from the age of 15 to 20 years he believes he spent most of his time in St Patrick’s.

“Just with being homeless and on the drugs, constantly getting into trouble,” he says of his teenage years.

While critical of the lack of any meaningful educational or drug rehabilitation facilities during his time there, he says his life has been so chaotic that he looks back on St Patrick’s “in a weird good way”.

“It was the only bit of stability I ever had, prison; somewhere to sleep and something to eat. I’d never had that very often.

“But when they have you in there as a young fella they should be doing something with you. What’s the point in coming out strung out and not being able to read and write, cos that’s what most of the young fellas are like.”

Now on a methadone programme and having stayed away from drugs for a prolonged period while living in a city centre homeless hostel, Fran credits the British prison system with breaking the cycle for him.

“I got banged up over there – I’m only out after eight years. I went back and did a course in jail there – media studies – got myself a bit straight. Being Irish in a British jail is hard; oh, it’s hard, believe me.

“But still, the jails here are so bad it was only when I was locked up somewhere else that I realised how bad they are here. Looking back when I started, I was only 15 in St Pat’s.

“I told them the first time I was there that I shouldn’t be there but they just laughed at me. Fucked me up it did, so young.”

“Looking back on it it could have been the making of me; just like doing the course over in England was the past few years. But you’re just a kid and you’re just a little scumbag to them over here, as they would see it.”