Madam, - Last year I worked in the Dóchas Woman's Prison in Mountjoy as part of a three-week contemporary dance educational project. I came away impressed both by the facilities available to prisoners and by the caring, rehabilitative ethos of the prison.
The women I met were obviously distressed at being away from their families, particularly their children. A high percentage come from the inner city, so family visiting is made easier by the prison's location. The proposed move will create greater hardship for all involved.
It is difficult, in light of the high cost of developing Dóchas (€16.5 million to build in 1999) and its impressive facilities, to understand the Minister's wish to move the women's prison. If overcrowding is an issue, surely it would be better to extend the current prison into the newly available site when the Victorian men's prison at Mountjoy is torn down.
The rush to sell off more State property for residential and commercial development is depressing, particularly when homeless people daily sleep on our streets and judges struggle to find proper places for juvenile offenders. It is obvious that Dóchas inhibits the commercial development of the whole Mountjoy complex. But is that a good enough reason to waste the €16.5 million spent developing the prison?
And if the proposed development is to be a public/private partnership, what will happen to the rehabilitative ethos currently in place? Do we want to see US-style prisons in Ireland? There is now a wonderful opportunity to develop the whole Mountjoy complex into an inner-city resource with an extended women's prison - to help build a decent civil society rather than just an economy. - Yours, etc.,
CARMEL WHITE, Belgrave Square, Rathmines, Dublin 6.