Stint in St Pat's often 'marks start of a career in prison'

Workshops are closed, inmates are locked in cells for long periods, and bullying seems rife

Workshops are closed, inmates are locked in cells for long periods, and bullying seems rife. Little has changed since 1985, writes Carl O'Brien.

Twenty years after it was first written, one devastating paragraph still leaps out from the thousands of words in the 1985 Whitaker Report into prison reform.

"The committee has no hesitation in recommending the closing of St Patrick's Institution as soon as possible. Rehabilitation is not possible where the physical and environmental conditions are such as to nullify any personal development programme."

Today, judging by the opinion of people working in the juvenile justice system and the latest report by the Inspector of Prisons, little has changed.

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St Patrick's, founded under the old borstal system in Clonmel, Co Tipperary before moving to its present site in 1958, is the State's largest institution for young offenders.Serving about 200 male offenders, aged 16-21 years, it is supposed to provide rehabilitation services to its inmates.

Almost without exception they are from severely disadvantaged backgrounds, have left school early without basic literacy skills and often have grown up in a chaotic family background.

With histories of self-harm, addiction and charge sheets with dozens or even hundreds of crimes, it is a last chance to avoid a lifetime's entanglement with the criminal justice system. Instead, the bleak picture of St Patrick's painted by those working in the juvenile justice system, and now backed up the Inspector of Prisons' report, is of an institution failing hundreds of vulnerable young people.

Workshops are closed, inmates spend long periods locked in cells, no childcare workers are employed, bullying seems rife and adults mix with children.

"For many of the children that enter St Pat's, it's the end of the road," says Sarah Molloy, a solicitor who works with young offenders. "It often marks the start of a career in prison. You'll find they'll move on to Mountjoy having been through all the other institutions for young offenders."

There is little doubt that substantial funds have been pumped into services for young offenders. The problem is much of it has been squandered by funnelling it into knee-jerk solutions.

Take the construction of a €10 million facility for 14- to 15-year-olds for instance. The building was hastily commissioned in the run-up to the last general election following the death of two gardaí in a so-called joyriding incident involving two teenagers. For legal reasons it was never used. It now faces demolition.

At the same time, according to the report, budgetary cuts have closed workshops - one of the few services offering some sort of rehabilitation.

The words of the institution's prison chaplain, quoted in the report, underline the effect of these closures.

"He was very, very concerned and distressed about the position in St Patrick's. . . He greatly regrets the ending of the workshops which apparently have been closed since approximately the end of 2003. This may be a substantial cause for his conclusion that the present year is 'the most disastrous year' in his 13 years' chaplaincy in the institution."

Evidence of bullying was also brought to the inspector's attention by solicitors Pól Ó Murchú and Ms Molloy.

They said that, given the increase in children appearing in court with black eyes or other injuries, they "believed it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed in the institution".

The inspector, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, said that while inmates denied the existence of bullying , he was concerned about the allegations and called on management and staff to do everything possible to "stamp out this malpractice." Given the inadequate levels of rehabilitation, coupled with other concerns, it is little surprise that the devastating words in the Whitaker Report of 1985 are effectively repeated.

"The enforced idleness and lack of activity in the institution appears to be the root cause of some of the problems. . ." he writes. "I fully support its closure as it is completely inadequate to provide rehabilitation for juveniles."