THERE is a small room, with one reinforced window along the end wall. Near it is a large drawing pad mounted on an easel. There is a Pissarro and a Van Gogh print, and a notice of "Rules for the Group" hanging on another wall.
"Use each other's first names, no nicknames," it says. "No gossiping outside of group. Crime files will not be shared between group members."
In the centre of the room chairs are arranged in a circle.
They are empty now, but for two hours twice a week 10 men sit here, and discuss how they came to commit some of the most horrific crimes society can imagine. Rape, paedophilia, incest, sexual assaults are the business of this room. This is the home of the sex offender programme in Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin.
The programme, which started in 1994, can accommodate only 10 inmates a year from the 250 sex offenders in the State. Those who run it know they will achieve no miracle cures, even with prisoners attending two meetings a week for a year. The best hope, offered by international research, is that on release they will commit between 10 and 30 per cent fewer sex crimes than if they had not attended.
About 100 of Arbour Hill's 133 prisoners are sex offenders. Yesterday there was an open day for the media organised by the Department of Justice. But reporters were not allowed to meet prisoners. The official reason was protection of the identities of victims.
Apart from the sex offenders there are 23 murderers serving life terms in Arbour Hill. The most famous cases are here: Malcolm MacArthur, convicted in 1983 of the murder of nurse Bridie Gargan in the Phoenix park, and former private Sean Courtney, convicted in 1993 for the murder of Patricia O'Toole. Among sex offenders the most significant in legal terms is the one whose name is least known - Mr X of the X case.
Touring the jail while prisoners were locked in their cells yesterday afternoon, Arbour Hill appeared quite different to any other jail. The silence was eerie - not so much as a shout from behind a cell door, compared to the bedlam common in other prisons. This is partly due to the age profile of men - most are in their late 20s, 30s and 40s. It is not just that older men are quieter, a prison officer said. "For some of the crimes they've done, they've a lot to be thinking about."
Arbour Hill prison is set on a small site north of the River Liffey, opposite the Guinness brewery. Originally a military detention centre, it was opened as a civilian prison in 1973. It is among the most modern of the prisons, centred on a small huddle of buildings including a three wing cell block. All cells have recently been fitted with toilets.
The couple of temporarily empty cells opened for viewing yesterday bore witness to the age of their occupants. Instead of the Pamela Anderson pin ups familiar from other prisons, they had posters paying tribute to Sir Matt Busby.
At Arbour Hill there are wood and art workshops as well as schooling and a well equipped gym, used by about 50 inmates. In one room prisoners use computers to translate schoolbooks and magazine articles into Braille, for the National Council for the Blind. Most prisoners agree to some form of work, and those working on the Braille books have to learn to read it, at least by sight.
"We don't have a revolving door problem here and we've no drug problem," says the Governor, Mr Pat Dunne. "We've a stable situation here with most people serving long sentences." There are 25 on remand and most of the rest, 80 prisoners, are serving between six years and life. There are only two clerics at the jail, other religious convicted of sex crimes have been transferred to other prisons.
The sexual offenders programme is at the core of the work at Arbour Hill. While there are one to one sessions between prisoners and staff, the group therapy sessions in the room with the circle of chairs - the only such programme in the State - is considered the way forward.
According to Dr Paul Murphy, the clinical psychologist who runs the programme, the most pressing need is for more spaces on the scheme. The 10 now on the programme were selected from 40 applicants.
He says that of the 250 such offenders in the State, only about 20 per cent would be likely to apply or deemed suitably committed. He would rather have 20 spaces and the shortage at the moment means those nearing their release dates are most likely to be allowed to join. About 60 will be released this year.
The central objective of the programme is diminishing the risk they pose to the public. "It isn't about cure, it's not about eradication, it's about risk reduction," Dr Murphy says.
The programme involves offenders talking through their problems before the rest of the group. The first requirement is admitting the offence - those who pleaded guilty often maintain their innocence afterwards. According to Mr Anthony Cotter, senior probation and welfare officer, confidentiality is assured and would only be breached by staff if a prisoner admitted to a murder to which they had not been previously connected.
Sex offenders are not given early release, other than the 25 per cent remission afforded to all. In other respects the regime seems a little more relaxed than elsewhere. About 20 of the prisoners have small televisions in their cells, a privilege denied in other jails.
The nearest most sex offenders will get to temporary release is a day in the city, escorted by a prison officer, as their term nears its end. "We'd give them a bit of money and show them how to spend it. A lot of these people would have been in for a very long time and would have forgotten things like how to spend money," says Mr Dunne.
There is currently controversy abroad over how sex offenders should be treated in the community. In the US Megan's Law, named after a child victim, requires residents to be notified when a convicted offender moves into their area. In Australia journalists have published a register of sex offenders, based on newspaper clippings, and similar schemes are being considered in Britain.
The Arbour Hill staff working with offenders have grave reservations about such registers. "Internationally only about one in 10 sex offenders is charged. Of them about 50 per cent reach court, and only a third of them are convicted," says Mr Cotter. Therefore any register of convicts highlights only a very small proportion of the true sex offender population.
Dr Murphy says finding ways to monitor offenders once they are released appears to be a better solution. "Once an offender leaves prison the Department of Justice has no control over them," he says.
It is not known if the 10 to 30 per cent reduction in sex offences reported by other programmes is mirrored at Arbour Hill, and Dr Murphy wants more research to establish the new programme's effectiveness. "It's very difficult to know. We've no evidence as to whether it is effective. It's impossible to say," he says.