All of our prisons, Mountjoy in particular, are monuments of inhumanity and lack of thought compounded by lack of resources, the Bar Council journal has stated.
In a strong editorial in the latest edition of the Bar Review, it is stated that the Department of Finance ultimately must decide that a rational allocation of resources demanded a massive investment in the prevention of crime and the improvement of court and penal facilities.
Without resources the work of the Crime Forum and the Crime Council which was to be set up, would be futile, it said. The ultimate question which must be asked was how much was this, or any government, prepared to spend in preventing crime effectively? There was no doubt that there was a governmental willingness to provide resources for increased business spaces.
To what extent, however, was any government prepared to give resources in order to create a prison system which had a genuine chance of rehabilitating criminals or to create custodial institutions which genuinely isolated drug users and non-drug users? the editorial asked.
"There is little doubt that social historians of the 21st century will view the inaction of successive governments on prisons as one of the inequities of our century. All of our prisons, Mountjoy, in particular, are monuments of inhumanity and lack of thought compounded by lack of resources," it stated.
Perhaps more profoundly the forum raised the issue as to whether prison actually worked either as retribution, rehabilitation or as a place of isolation for convicted criminals.
However, the editorial stated, the need for resources was not confined to prisons. Despite some improvement there was a still a substantive need for an improvement of courtroom facilities for prisoners, jurors and witnesses.
"It is logically inconsistent for society to lecture criminals on their inhumanity to others while at the same time treating prisoners and suspects in a fundamentally inhuman fashion."
The Crime Forum itself would not present recommendations. Rather it was intended that it would present the evidence in the series of findings.
In order to transform these findings and the ultimate recommendations of the Crime Council into reality, political will was needed. This will must come not just from the Minister for Justice but from the Department of Finance.