Some 13 years after the Whitaker report recommended it, the Government has, at last, set in train procedures which will lead to the establishment of a semi-independent Prisons Authority. The authority, which will be established early next year, will be responsible for the day-to-day administration of the £150 million prisons budget. A parole board will be established to review the cases of long-serving prisoners and an inspector will be appointed to ensure that prisoners are treated fairly. In announcing this package of measures, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said that it amounted to "the most fundamental reform of the prison service since the State was founded". But the fact that it has taken so long to implement the central recommendation of the 1985 Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System, chaired by Dr Ken Whitaker, speaks volumes. For more than 25 years this State has muddled through with a prison system which lacks any kind of long-term policy direction. It is, by now, something of a ritual to blame the Department of Justice for this. But there are firmer grounds for pointing an accusing finger at successive governments which have given such a low priority to the prison service. Over the past two decades the political response to the prison system has followed the same depressing cycle; the prison service suddenly gains some serious political attention at a time of crisis but the wider issue of penal reform, inevitably, fades with the headlines.
The prison service has a long distance to travel before it can deliver the kind of constructive, rehabilitative imprisonment favoured by Whitaker. Most of the State's prison population is still housed in Victorian buildings which were designed to meet the needs of an another age. Welfare and counselling services for prisoners have never been given due priority and attention. A recidivist rate estimated at an astonishing 70 per cent tells its own bleak story. The establishment of the Prisons Authority provides a real opportunity to break the log-jam in prison policy and to set coherent, long-term objectives. An inspector of prisons, is also welcome and overdue - an independent voice who can address the legitimate concerns of prisoners could play a significant role in helping to calm the often volatile atmosphere in the State's jails. But, welcome as they are, it will take more than new structures to lift the prison service out its current crisis. The Prisons Authority can work towards the kind of prison service hinted at by Whitaker but to achieve this it will need support and encouragement. If the Government is seriously committed to a reformed prison service, it must be ready to invest very significantly in the welfare and rehabilitation of our prison population.