State chided on prison overcrowding

THE GOVERNMENT is behaving negligently in creating an overcrowding crisis in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has claimed.

Overcrowding in Cork Prison was also at crisis point with 314 inmates in a jail whose capacity is to house just 150.

POA president Jim Mitchell said the overcrowding issue is now worsening so acutely at Mountjoy that inmates are sleeping on mattresses in the reception area.

Speaking last night at the opening of the POA’s annual conference in Castlebar, Co Mayo, Mr Mitchell said dangerous overcrowding levels at the jail had been well-known for years and still nothing had been done to address the it despite a history of violence in Mountjoy.

“In 2007 an internal audit showed that overcrowding was a major issue in our prisons,” Mr Mitchell said.

“Since then nothing has happened to address the issue. The terms ‘pressure cooker’ and ‘warehousing’ have been used to describe the impact of overcrowding, and yet there seems to be no constructive plan to ease this pressure on prisoners and prison staff.”

Mr Mitchell said that on February 2nd there were 660 inmates in Mountjoy. This was just a week after the capacity had been raised to 570, a level with which the prison’s visiting committee had expressed dissatisfaction.

“To place 90 prisoners above the extended capacity in a prison which has a history of violence is negligent. And it is also unfair on prisoners and the prison officers who must deal with the situation at the coalface.”

Mr Mitchell urged Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to find a solution to alleviate overcrowding.

“Prisoners have committed a crime, but it’s not poor overcrowded facilities they need if there is to be any level of rehabilitation, which is what we are supposed to be about.”

Prison officers have repeatedly pointed out overcrowding leads to raised tensions in jails which manifests itself in serious violence.

The POA conference continues today and tomorrow. Mr Ahern is not planning to attend because he is committed to being in the Dáil where new criminal surveillance legislation is being debated.