THE IRISH prison system is a monument to long years of administrative and government failures. The extent of the problem finds echoes in refusals by the Department of Justice and the Minister’s office to meet and provide information to their own visiting committee at Mountjoy Jail. The latest report from that body identifies an emerging gang culture, drug taking, overcrowding and a lack of rehabilitation facilities as serious problems. In view of the economic downturn and the sentencing practices of judges, the situation can only get worse.
New thinking at official level is needed. Our 15 prisons could be heated by all the reports advocating reform that have been published. As with some aspects of our hospital services, prisons and the way they function have come to reflect the needs of the service suppliers, rather than the welfare of clients. In that context, an overcrowded prison system provides justification for a new building programme, for overtime and for high numbers of staff.
There are, however, other solutions that offer a more humane and effective approach. For the past 10 years, Fine Gael has been harassing the Government to introduce legislation that would keep people out of jail for the non-payment of fines or debts. Instead, money would be deducted from pay or social welfare incomes. That would free-up some 2,000 prison places a year.
In the same way, prison chaplains have complained that the system is being used as a dumping ground for individuals with psychiatric illnesses. The Norwegian system, involving “composite” judicial orders concerning probationary and community services, linked to counselling and periods of electronic tagging, could halve the number of future inmates.
As things stand, the last “big idea” on reform – the construction of an enormous 2,200-bed prison complex at Thornton Hall in north Co Dublin – is on hold because of funding problems. It was planned in association with a new central mental hospital and was designed to replace antiquated, cockroach-infested Mountjoy. A modern, drugs-free prison where dangerous criminals can be segregated is certainly required. But the size of this structure and its proximity to a psychiatric hospital has raised difficult issues.
We need to break from the failed policies of the past. How many more reports, setting out the dysfunctional nature of the prison system, will be required before a programme of offender rehabilitation is adopted in preference to the crude one of incarceration?
It is facile to represent such change as being “soft on crime”, but that will not stop some vested interests from doing so. We cannot afford to persevere with a “lock-em-up and throw away the key” mentality. That has led to failure. Any new initiative will need the full support and co-operation of the judiciary, the Garda Siochána and the Probation and Welfare Service. But, most of all, change will require Government courage.