FORMER GOVERNOR of Mountjoy Prison John Lonergan has strongly criticised the Irish Prison Service for its handling of the release of Larry Murphy last August.
He accused the service of throwing Murphy to the wolves. He has also challenged Irish people’s attitudes to prisoners generally.
Murphy (45), from Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, was freed from Arbour Hill Prison in August after spending 10½ years in jail for the abduction, rape and attempted murder of a woman in 2000. Writing in the current issue of Intercom magazine, Mr Lonergan said the only person to publicly support Murphy was the prison chaplain
“Otherwise he was on his own. Sadly the Irish Prison Service literally threw him to the ‘wolves’ by playing to political and public opinion,” he writes. “No human being should be treated like that irrespective of what crimes he committed.”
Mr Lonergan said he discovered years ago being on the prisoners’ side was never popular “but I always believed that being popular should not be my concern – doing the right and decent thing should always take precedence”. While the vast majority of people in Ireland claimed to be Christian, “very few publicly supported this Christian-based philosophy when it was applied to working with prisoners”. He criticised political parties for competing over having the toughest crime policies.
Today the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas celebrates its 25th anniversary at a conference in Dublin attended by President Mary McAleese.