Report urges privatising jail on trial basis

The Inspector of Prisons has recommended privatising one of the State’s jails on a trial basis in his latest annual report.

The recommendation is among a series contained in Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen’s third annual report on the Irish prison service.

Mr Justice Kinlen suggests that the running of one jail be handed over to a private security company for a specified period. This jail would be subject to the same levels of inspection as the rest of the prison service. "If successful all prisons public, and private, should compete for contracts every five years," the report states.

He also recommends using more videolinks to avoid having to bring prisoners to court. If this can’t be avoided, he suggests using private security firms to escort them. "It may be better value and will provide equal security to that of the present prison service," he says.

But Mr Justice Kinlen predicted huge opposition to these proposals from "vested interests".

The report also recommends the immediate closure of St Patrick’s Institution, which houses young offenders. He said Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and the Oireachtas "should be ashamed" of the treatment prisoners receive there.

They are locked up in their cells for 17 or 18 hours a day and have only "dull and dreary" yards rife with violence for exercise. This is a "recipe for disaster" that does nothing to rehabilitate offenders and "almost certainly ensures that they will graduate to Mountjoy Prison within a short time of their release," he said.

Mr Justice Kinlen advises that all young adults and children under the age of 16 should be dealt with by the Department of Education rather than the Department of Justice. He says they should be "kept in totally separate accommodation well away from prisons".

Mr McDowell said this afternoon it would not be practical to close St Patrick’s immediately, but said a youth prison would be built on the grounds of the new prison complex at Thornton in north Dublin.

This complex is also intended to house the Training Unit, which is currently in Mountjoy Prison. But Mr Justice Kinlen says this is unacceptable.

Around one-third of prisoners attending go out daily on temporary release to courses or to employment in Dublin. Therefore, Thornton Hall is unsuitable for such prisoners as it is not served by adequate transport infrastructure.

Mr Justice Kinlen describes Cork prison as "appalling", where there is gross overcrowding, financial cutbacks and nothing to occupy the prisoners. They have to slop out their cells, the same cells where they are forced to eat their meals. "I think it is disgusting that you have to eat in a public lavatory which is basically what is happening," he says.

The report says the Government needs to decide whether their policy on prisons should follow the US and UK example of building ever-larger jails or take the Scandinavian route of providing realistic alternatives to locking up criminals.

Mr Justice Kinlen argues in his report that prison does not work. He says figures showing over two-thirds of all prisoners reoffend. "If 70 per cent do not learn from prison and become good citizens, it seems a terrible waste of money," he said. "I would certainly not recommend it."

The logical option, he says, is to reduce the number of people in prison and establish by statute a separate and independent Probation and Welfare service. In addition to its present duties, this service would have more of a role in the welfare and aftercare of prisoners and would specialise in seeking alternatives to jail sentences.

Mr Justice Kinlen also accuses Mr McDowell of being slow in "grasping the nettle" and making the Inspector of Prisons and the Probation Service independent.

The report notes Ireland is lagging behind England, Scotland and Northern Ireland in not having a prisoner’s ombudsman. The complaints system is, in the words of Fr Peter McVerry, "worse than useless", Mr Justice Kinlen said.

He argues the present tendency in Irish prisons is "to reduce and ignore" external supervision. "Officials have nothing to fear if they come out of their bunkers and if they are open and transparent, efficient and accountable," he adds.