There is a notice currently on display in all prisons in the country, writes Vincent Browne.
It reads: "Notice to all visitors - Under new legislation, Section 36 of the Prisons Act 2007 will take effect from the 1st May 2007. Section 36 of the Prisons Act makes it an offence for a prisoner to use a mobile phone or a component thereof (eg a SIM card). It also makes it an offence for a person (not just a prisoner) to supply a mobile phone to a prisoner. An offender is liable to a fine and/or imprisonment for up to 12 months on a summary conviction or a fine not exceeding €10,000 and/or 5 years imprisonment, on conviction on indictment."
The notice is dated May 1st, 2007, and it is signed by the minister for justice, who at the time was Michael McDowell.
The rumpus of prisoners having mobile phones erupted last April when a prisoner in Portlaoise phoned Liveline. All of a sudden this was regarded as a major breach of security and a crisis. McDowell reacted opportunistically, promising yet further draconian measures to deal with this entirely unacceptable situation.
The reality, however, was that mobile phones were being used extensively through prisons and the authorities knew full well about this and turned a blind eye. There was a hullabaloo a few years back when Dessie O'Hare, on returning to Castlerea prison from a weekend parole, was found to have a mobile phone and a few tablets on him. This caused the then minister for justice to have him returned to the relative unpleasantness of Portlaoise, even though he and several others used mobile phones openly in Castlerea and, as it happened, at that time the prison authorities were in the process of installing land lines in the prison for the free and unsupervised use of prisoners. The tablets, incidentally, were not of an illicit drug variety. And yet this too became a minor crisis.
The claim that the use of mobile phones in prison is a major security issue and/or a criminal issue because crime bosses may be directing organised crime from their prison cells is simple alarmism. This is so in the case of convicted prisoners such as John Gilligan, about whom there has been a recent fuss in connection with mobile phones.
How, possibly, could Gilligan be directing organised crime from his prison cell, where he is due to serve at least a further eight years? Who would take direction from him and why? And how, possibly, could he intimidate anyone, since there is nobody who would carry out any threat he made? Anyway, the likes of Gilligan have had mobile phones for years and there is no evidence of it resulting in a security threat.
Yes, arguably, prisoners on remand might be able to exercise some criminal muscle, but why should they be prevented from using phones since they are innocent in the eyes of the law? Unless, of course, this fundamental principle of our criminal justice system is regarded as a nullity.
This threat of consequences to prisoners for using a mobile phone is just another little piece of nastiness built into the prison system, which is replete with nastiness anyway.
There is, of course, a necessity for prisons and for custodial sentences. But custodial sentences have been overused, for instance in cases involving the failure to discharge debts. Aside from that, prisons have become incubators for more criminality because of a number of factors, among them the discharge of prisoners with almost no cash and no accommodation arrangements; the failure of the penal system to apply itself constructively to the rehabilitation of prisoners; and the deepening of that sense of alienation which drives many (not, by any means, all) into criminality in the first place.
There should be changes, among them the following:
The resort to custodial sentences only where it is unavoidable - other penalties, including community service and attachment of earnings, should be used in preference.
The introduction of class fairness into the criminal justice system, whereby major criminals in the upper middle classes, for instance those involved in insider dealing, should go to jail and avail of the same facilities as do other prisoners.
A change in work practices in prison, whereby prisoners are permitted to work for a wage appropriate to the work they do (one of the most iniquitous features of Michael McDowell's Prisons Act 2007 was a prison which exempted prisons from having to abide by the minimum wage requirements).
Prisoners should be encouraged to utilise the skills and qualifications they have for fees applicable in the market generally - for instance, lawyers and accountants who might be imprisoned for their complicity in insider dealing in the stock exchange, should be encouraged, as part of their rehabilitation, to use their legal and/or accounting skills while in prison and be remunerated accordingly.
Similarly, other prisoners should have their skills deployed. And they all should be allowed use mobile phones.