Prisons failing to prevent rape, says chaplains' report

The prison system is failing to protect prisoners from rape and sexual assault, and the State will be sued by prisoners who have been assaulted, according to a highly-critical report by the prison chaplains.

The annual report, sent to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, this week and seen by The Irish Times, says rape and sexual harassment are going unreported in prisons.

"We are aware that vulnerable prisoners are being pressurised into engaging in sexual activity," the report says, and the problem is exacerbated by overcrowding.

"We believe that the courts will find the State liable and award damages to those who have been raped while in custody, in that the system at present fails to protect prisoners from rape and sexual assault."

The report, by 10 full-time chaplains working in eight of the State's 15 prisons, is the most damning indictment of the prison system in recent years. It describes inhumane conditions, chronic overcrowding, "barbaric" methods and practices they describe as "torture".

An 80-year-old infirm prisoner was handcuffed while being transferred from Cork Prison to Arbour Hill last year, the report says. "We feel that this amounts to torture and we will bring this to the attention of the European Commission for the Prevention of Torture."

The report also describes the use of padded cells as a method of "at best sensory deprivation and at worst torture."

Among its 79 recommendations the report calls on the Department of Justice to limit the population of Mountjoy Prison to 547. The prison is 41 per cent above that capacity, holding an average of more than 700.

"This level of overcrowding is achieved by cramming human beings into appalling conditions." And the system is failing "abysmally" to rehabilitate prisoners, the report says.

It also calls on the Department to review the targeting of prisoners by a branch of the Church of Scientology, calling itself Criminon Ireland, this year.

The letters, personally addressed to prisoners starting long sentences for sex offences and murder offer free "correspondence courses" according to the head of the prison chaplains, Father Fergal MacDonagh.

Prisoners starting long sentences were easy targets as they were vulnerable and isolated, Father MacDonagh said.

One man sentenced for rape earlier this year received a letter three days after he was sentenced. "I read about you in the newspaper," the letter, with a PO Box return address, started.

"I am writing to you to introduce you to Criminon Ireland, a charity which aims to help people caught up in the penal system to take another look at life by learning about common-sense values as described in the non-religious booklet, The Way to Happiness, written by the American humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, a copy of which I enclose."

The letter said the correspondence course would be "absolutely free with no cost whatsoever to you as it is sponsored by individuals and businesses. Freepost envelopes are provided to send your lessons back."