THE Irish Penal Reform Trust has called for the appointment of a full-time Inspector of Prisons and indemnity for members of prison Visiting Committees, following the publication yesterday of the 1996 report of the Visiting Committee to Mountjoy Prison, Dublin.
As already reported by The Irish Times, the report reveals that one third of male prisoners are regular heroin users and the rate of attempted suicides in the prison rose dramatically from 1995 to 1996. Attempted suicides among male inmates in Mountjoy rose from 13 in 1995 to 42 in 1996, while female suicide attempts rose from 15 to 22 in the same period. Overcrowding, drug use and inadequate medical and psychiatric facilities were identified as factors in the increase.
The chairwoman of the IPRT, Dr Valerie Bresnihan, said the report revealed there was an absence of fundamental rights at all levels of the Irish prison system. She rejected the proposal of the expert group on Irish prisons to appoint a part-time Inspector of Prisons.
"In the light of the report, a part-time Inspector of Prisons merely adds insult to injury," she said.
She also called for the granting of indemnity to Visiting Committee members where necessary and a "radical overhaul" of the job description of prison officers, based on the model of officer-involvement used in the Mountjoy Detoxification Unit.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, in its response to the report, said it showed the Bail Act was unworkable and the "lock 'em up" solution to crime was inadequate.
The co-chairman of the ICCL, Mr Michael Farrell, said the new Act could not be implemented until a new remand prison was opened. Even then, he said, the provision in the Act requiring bail applicants to lodge one third of their bail in cash or securities would lead to the poor and the homeless being sent needlessly to places like Mountjoy.