Madam, - The denials by the director general of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell, of a crisis in the system indicates one of two worrying scenarios.
Either the penal authorities are oblivious to the current state of the prisons or they are expecting much worse to come.
Mr Purcell can, however, operate only within the confines of the political strategies and objectives put in place by the Government. Managing and containing of the difficulties in such circumstances is an unenviable task.
Twenty years ago, the Whitaker Report, a comprehensive and pioneering study of the penal system, recommended a cap on prison places and the development of alternatives to imprisonment. Successive ministers for justice have chosen to ignore its findings and advice. The cost is borne out in the daily scandals emanating from within the walls of our prisons.
While prison remains the central, and often the first, response to criminal activity, no amount of internal reform and investigation will remedy a crisis that is becoming ever more apparent.
Perhaps this is another situation in which the Department of Justice is forced to react hastily to a problem identified by an official report many years earlier? - Yours etc,
MARY ROGAN, Rathmines, Dublin 6.