Jails inspector says demolish Mountjoy and Portlaoise

The State's first Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention has called for the demolition of Mountjoy and Portlaoise prisons because of their "unacceptable" condition.

In his inaugural report, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen also described as "a retrograde step" the decision of the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to close Shanganagh Castle - a "jewel in the crown of the prison system" - last December.

The inspector, who was appointed to the five-year post last year, criticised both the Prison Service and the Department of Justice for being "slow to provide any information" to him.

"The fact that they wanted me to take six months off to read myself into the job and wanted me to go on a tour of Western Australia and possibly New Zealand shows their peculiar mindset," the Inspector writes.

"While many interpretations will be put on these offers, I took them as meaning that I was not to do any real work."

The report, published yesterday, includes the findings of inspections carried out between November 2002 and March 2003 at four prisons - Mountjoy, Cloverhill, Portlaoise and Limerick.

Addressing what he describes as the Department's "mindset of power and control", the inspector says: "It has gone deeper into a bunker since the Freedom of Information Act. 'If at all possible put nothing in writing' is a definite mantra."

Labour's spokesman on justice, Mr Joe Costello, congratulated the inspector for "having to courage to tell it as he saw it", adding the report was a "damning indictment" of the Government's record on prisons.

As well as recommending improvements to prison infrastructure and services, the report focuses on after-release services, expressing grave concern at the number of prisoners falling into homelessness or destitution on release.

The former High Court judge unusually incorporates personal anecdotes in the report. Drawing on his experience in establishing Irish-Chinese diplomatic relations, the inspector refers in one instance to the Chinese proverb that dripping on a stove will eventually crack it. "I felt you could achieve more by staying in the system rather than fuming outside."

Later, he refers to apparent overstaffing in the Prison Service by invoking Parkinson's Law, namely "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".

A spokesman for the Prison Service, which administers the sector, rejected the suggestion that it was over-staffed. He added the service had "nothing to hide" and was "happy to be scrutinised" by the Inspectorate.

A spokesman for the Minister said Mr McDowell would study the report carefully before commenting.