Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 7 Mar 1990

Vol. 396 No. 7

Adjournment Debate. - Death of Female Prisoner.

Mrs. Fennell

I should like to indicate to the Chair that I intend to share my time with my colleague, Deputy Jim O'Keeffe, and with my colleague, Deputy Jim O'Keeffe, and with Deputy McCartan. I thank the Chair for allowing me to raise this matter and I thank the Minister for coming to the Chamber to hear my case. It is with considerable sadness that I speak tonight about the conditions in Mountjoy female prison as it is overshadowed by the death yesterday of 19-year old prisoner, Sharon Gregg. First, I should like to extend my sympathy to the Gregg family, to the prison officers and the other women prisoners. However, sympathy is not enough. It is poor comfort when one is condemned to exist in appalling Dickensian conditions such as exist in Mountjoy female prison. That prison is one of the scandals of every political administration in recent years; it is also a scandal that women prisoners have been neglected in the development of facilities for male prisoners. They are outcasts who are deprived of their freedom by the courts on the one hand and further punished by a system that tolerates a hell hole of a women's prison.

I visited that jail in the past and I intend to go there tomorrow morning as part of an all-party delegation. I was a prison visitor for some years and as junior Minister in the Department of Justice I tried to improve conditions. I was able at that time to have a women doctor appointed. That was a small but relevant change and one that was recommended by the Whitaker Commission. There is a prevailing notion in the Department of Justice that promises will do, the promise of renovations, the promise of better work conditions, better education, better exercise facilities, but none of those promises has been fulfilled. The prison is worse than it was five years ago although Mountjoy Prison is now the only place of detention for women here.

Very obviously the Minister, and his Department, must now take responsibility for conditions in the prison and for what occurs in it. I suggest that it is time to look at the operational structure of the Department of Justice and question their ability to cope with all their serious areas of responsibility. We must ask if it is too centralised and understaffed. Should some important areas like the prisons be hived off to a separate unit? I believe that the women's prison should be closed down and gutted not next year, or next month but next week. Women there are subject to grave deprivation, much of it due to the overcrowding. That means that two or even three women are sharing a cell. I have been told of consequent serious sexual harassment and coercion of younger women by older lesbian women prisoners because of that overcrowding.

Mountjoy Prison should be closed down and the women prisoners moved to a decent place, to Wheatfield which was originally intended for women and not to a face-lifted St. Patricks. Wheatfield was planned in the late seventies for women. At that time it was envisaged that there would be in the region of 170 women prisoners, but, of course, we know that is not true. The Whitaker report of March 1984 dealt with the problem and made all the necessary recommendations one could possibly need. Those recommendations should be acted on now. Women prisoners need decent accommodation, one prisoner per cell, proper exercise facilities, proper educational facilities, treatment for drug and alcohol abuse and proper work facilities. I should like to quote from the report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System which states:

8.6 The survey confirmed the impression gained by the Committee during its visits to the prisons that women in custody were mainly young and the victims of an array of personal problems which cried out for attention. Sadly, very little was being done to help them. The accommodation was so inadequate and of such poor standard that it could only have aggravated their problems. There were no comprehensive therapeutic programmes for drug/alcohol abusers and psychiatric treatment was available only for the serious cases. Work and education programmes were limited and poor. Welfare Service staffing was insufficient to provide the intensive counselling service which these women needed to help them cope on release with normal living, home life and children.

The people working in our prisons are doing a very difficult job. I know women officers and welfare workers in the women's prison are caring and committed people, but we are asking them to fulfil an impossible role.

As has been said, there are very few women offenders compared to the male prison population at any one time, 40 women to about 1,600 men, and most of them are young, under 30, and have been sentenced for petty crimes. As a small group their needs, one would think, could be easily catered for but it is my view that because they are a small group they are ignored. They are easily passed over and, unfortunately, nobody up to now has championed their cause. I intend to do so and I call on the Council for the Status of Women, the ICA and other women's organisations to use their muscle to help those unfortunate women.

I want an assurance from the Minister that we will have an independent examination and report on what happened yesterday in the female prison and on the condition of the women's prison. I want a commitment from the Minister that he will make the changes that are long overdue. I certainly intend to make the Minister's political life intolerable until the position of women in prison is dramatically improved.

Mr. J. O'Keeffe

We are all affected by the sad and tragic circumstances surrounding the death of the 19 year old girl in Mountjoy prison last night. I join with my colleague, Deputy Fennell, in expressing condolences to her parents and relatives and, indeed, to the prison officers and let us also spare a thought for her young baby. She was the first girl to commit suicide in our prisons. I understand that many more have attempted suicide and that the number of incidents of wrist slashing and attempted throat cutting is such as to be almost commonplace.

Despite the best efforts of the prison staff it is clear that the women's prison in Mountjoy is totally unsuitable. The Minister for Justice, Deputy Burke, will no doubt tell us about the committee he established last December to examine the issue of deaths in prison and to make recommendations generally. This pass-the-buck approach will not do, particularly when we are dealing with matters of life and death. The Minister should answer specific questions as follows: (1) what are the circumstances surrounding this young girl's death? (2) Why has he not addressed the reforms recommended in the Whitaker report on penal reform? (3) Why will he not have a full Dáil debate on the issue of penal reform as I have requested many times? (4) Has he examined the research on prison suicides which is available from the Home Office in the UK and is he aware that our suicide rate here is almost twice the UK average? Their figures are 45 to 50 a year out of a prison population of around 45,000 to 50,000, while our figure last year was four out of an average prison population of fewer than 2,000. Is he further aware that as a result of the implementation of recommendations made, following the research into the 1972-87 period in the UK, there is evidence already that the rate of suicide in their prisons is now falling? (5) Will the Minister explain to the House why the annual report on prisons for 1988 has not been published? Has the report merely been deferred or is it being suppressed? (6) Will the Minister accept that the health of prison inmates is an issue which is tossed around between the Departments of Health, Education and Justice and that, in particular, psychiatric and psychological treatment for drug abuse, alcoholism and sexual deviation is not available except on a very occasional basis? (7) Why has the post of director of prison medical services been advertised merely on the basis of a two-year contract, thus making it almost certain that those interested, who are now in permanent posts, will not be able to accept the post? (8) Why has the Minister failed to appoint prison visiting committees whose terms of appointment expired on 31 December last? (9) Do the inmates in our prisons and, in particular, in the women's prison receive proper assessment, particularly drug addicts, with proper medical and nursing care?

In circumstances where inmates need psychotropic medication are they administered by professional staff with the same regulatory practices as apply to the dispensing of drugs within the community as a whole? (10) Has the Minister addressed the problem of sexual abuse in the women's prison? Is he aware of incidents of such sexual abuse of young female inmates by other female prisoners? What is he doing about it? Last, and most important, does the Minister now accept that he, as a part-time Minister, is not able to devote sufficient time to his many responsibilities in the justice area which require the full-time attention of a full-time Minister for Justice? It would, as I suggested last Saturday at our Ard-Fheis, be an improvement if the Minister now resigned one of his portfolios and devoted himself full-time to the other.

Mr. McCartan

I would like to thank Deputy Fennell for allowing me an opportunity to put on record my deepest regrets to the family of the young girl who, it appears, took her life in Mountjoy prison yesterday. This morning I put a question to the Taoiseach in regard to his remarks about the need to appoint a Deputy or a Minister of State to the Department of Justice to assist the present Minister. The Minister, Deputy Burke, responded by asking what had the death of the girl to do with him. My reply then was that the Whitaker report would tell him all. I should like to refer to a brief passage of that report which puts the matter beyond any doubt. I should like to say to the Minister that that report sets out clearly what has to be done with regard to women in prison and it is, unfortunately, the Minister's duty now, in the long line of Ministers who have ignored its recommendations, to do something about it before another life is lost. Paragraph 8.7 of the report states:

There is no doubt that facilities for women prisoners have been neglected and that advances made in male prisons, for example, in the development of education work and skills training activities, have not touched the women's prisons.

Paragraph 8.12 states:

The Committee is still satisfied that there is no suitable building or unit for a closed women's prison in the present prison system. It is imperative that one be designed and built without delay.

Paragraph 8.15 states in regard to services that:

The Committee would like to emphasise that it is essential to introduce immediately for all women in custory (closed or open) a full range of services including:

—adequate health care...

—facilities for the care of any child born in prison;

—full back-up psychiatric care with easy access to in-patient psychiatric hospital treatment;

—programmes for the treatment of drug/alcohol abusers;

—a full welfare service programme;

—counselling services...

—purposeful work activities;

—skills training to AnCO and CERT standards;

—a full education programme...

It is all there in the report. As long as the Minister ignores it, the death last night has everything to do with him.

Minister for Justice (Mr. Burke)

I, of course, share the concern to which deaths in prison give rise. As for the death which has led to the debate tonight, I am sure the House will agree that the death of someone so young and in such tragic circumstances — whether it occurs in prison or in the community — must be a matter of great regret. In expressing my sympathy to the family and friends of the deceased I think I should mention that anyone who heard her mother being interviewed on the radio at lunchtime would be filled with the deepest sympathy for her and respect for the dignified way in which she bore her grief.

An inquest into the death will take place in due course and, as all matters relevant to the death will be inquired into on that occasion, I do not consider that it would be appropriate for me to comment on them in detail here. There is the further point that sensitivity to the feelings of the family and friends of the deceased, particularly at this time, so soon after the death, requires a considerable degree of reticence in that regard. I am sure no-one would wish anything to be said which could add in any way to the distress of the bereaved.

Deaths in custody are an unfortunate reality faced by prison administrations the world over but because of the concern which deaths in prison understandably give rise to, I established, towards the end of last year, an advisory group to examine specifically the issue of deaths in prisons and to make recommendations in relation to any aspect of the matter.

The group comprises a governor and deputy governor, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a chaplain, a senior member of the probation and welfare service, a representative of the Prison Officers' Association and a principal officer from the prisons division of my Department. Not only is there a high level of expertise among the members of the group but they are also consulting with others who may be able to assist them in their task. The group fully appreciate the urgency which attaches to their task but, given the enormously complex and sensitive issues which they have to address it is clearly vital that they have sufficient time to enable them to deal with these matters comprehensively over whatever period proves necessary.

A report on each death is carefully examined within my Department with a view to establishing whether there was any action that might have been taken that might have helped to bring a risk to notice or that might have lessened any risk that was known in the particular case. Riders to inquest verdicts are carefully examined by the prison authorities and implemented when considered appropriate and practical. One rider recommended the installation of a cell-call system to enable offenders to contact staff. As part of a long planned rewiring project at Mountjoy which has been underway for the past few months a new cell-call system is being installed.

Leaving aside the specific issue of deaths in custody, it has been common cause for many years that physical conditions at Mountjoy women's prison were in need of improvement. That is why at an early stage after becoming Minister for Justice I decided that priority should be given to completely refurbishing the accommodation there and the Government provided the necessary funds in this year's Estimates to enable refurbishment to take place. This work is being undertaken as part of the refurbishment of the St. Patrick's Institution complex of which the women's prison forms part.

I am satisfied the refurbishment of the women's prison at Mountjoy represents the most effective way of improving the quality of the accommodation for women prisoners, at least in the relatively short term.

Physical conditions are, of course, only one of the factors which determine the quality of life for prisoners. It has to be said that women prisoners have a wide array of services made available to them, including psychiatric, psychological, welfare, educational and chaplaincy. In recent years a medical officer has been appointed to deal exclusively with the needs of female offenders.

While I emphasise again that it would not be appropriate to comment in detail on the circumstances of the death last night, I think it only right to say, in case it appears from public comment that no services were available to the deceased, that she had been availing of medical services at the prison on a regular basis and had the benefit of a consultation with a medical adviser at noon yesterday. I think it would be a pity if any comments were to be made which would detract from the efforts of these agencies, and of those of management and staff in the prison service, to provide a humane regime for those in their care.

Obviously, it is not possible in the course of these few minutes to comment in detail on recommendations made in the report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System. I think I should mention, however, two points: the post of medical director and the question of alternatives to imprisonment. The House will be aware that despite two competitions for the post of medical director it did not prove possible to make an appointment to it. I had this matter reexamined and, as a result, the post was readvertised two weeks ago with a substantial increase in remuneration and improvements in conditions of services in an effort to attract a suitable candidate.

I should mention that in recent years the duties of the medical director have been undertaken by the chief medical officer of the Civil Service and I am happy to acknowledge the contribution which he has made. I should make it clear, of course, that in addition to the chief medical officer there are 15 medical doctors visiting the prisons and places of detention on a regular basis with at least the same number of psychiatrists being available to provide their services as and when required. Where specialist services or hospital treatment is required, the necessary arrangements are made. The role of the chief medical officer — and medical director when appointed — therefore, is directional and administrative rather than clinical.

With regard to alternatives to imprisonment, the House will appreciate that the sentence imposed in a particular case is a matter for the courts which have a wide range of non-custodial alternatives available to them, including community service and which, in fact, make wide use of alternatives. Finally, if Members of this House have specific points — I want to emphasise this and I say it in a totally non-political way, I am not the fountain of all knowledge on this no more than anybody on the far side of the House is — which they believe should be considered by the advisory group on prison deaths, I would, of course, be happy to pass them on to the group and to take them into account when consideration is being given to the matter.

In relation to the comment made by Deputy Fennell about making my political life intolerable in relation to this issue, I feel a deep sense of commitment in this area. That is the reason I tried to do as much as I have done and I will continue to do so in the length of time I am in the Department of Justice.

Mrs. Fennell

Will the Minister meet us after we finish with Mountjoy prison?

Mr. Burke

Yes.

The Dáil adjourned at 11 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 8 March, 1990.