Currently persons on remand are being kept in our prisons and are taking up space required for convicted persons. There is need for separate remand centres where those persons could be retained and kept securely away from the prison population. Their needs and requirements are different from those of convicted persons.
When I tabled this motion I did so as part of an overall package, including the provision of a night court to respond to the ever spiralling lawlessness in our city.
However, in the wake of the assassinations of Garda McCabe and today, of Veronica Guerin, to whose family and colleagues I extend my deepest sympathy, we must look very carefully at suspending some civil liberties in the pursuit of maintaining our very basic right to live our lives free from threats of violence and intimidation.
I will deal with the need to establish a separate place of detention for those on remand. In response to a parliamentary question I tabled, I was informed that on 24 May 633 men were in custody in Mountjoy, of whom 102 were on remand, and of the 39 women in custody in Mountjoy ten were on remand. The absence of a separate remand centre was criticised by the subcommittee of the Council of Europe reporting on penal regimes in what is known as the CPT document, published in the past 12 months. It was also a key criticism in the Whitaker committee report.
While I appreciate that many prisoners serving sentences are also categorised as being on remand, there is a significant number of such persons occupying much needed prison places. In the context of the revolving door policy it is the convicted offenders who are released to make prison space available, not the remandees.
Recently we witnessed two tragic suicides which must indicate the stress experienced by those on remand given their status as detained but not convicted prisoners. In prison, remand detainees are not kept separately but intermingle with those serving sentences. Work is not allocated to them, so they have nothing to occupy their time. The age of Mountjoy Prison and its function as a place of detention and remand for Dublin, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster, underlines the need for a separate place of detention for those on remand and to make available some of the extra prison places required to deal with current levels of crime. Towards this end I suggest that the prison population of Wheatfield be transferred to other places of detention and that it be used as a remand centre. That would be an inexpensive solution to an urgent problem.
The frustration of the Garda Síochána and judicial personnel at the inadequacy of some of our places of detention is well publicised. We need to embark on a programme of developing our custodial regimes to deal with the dual roles of rehabilitation of offenders and protecting the public from dangerous individuals.
There is the added anomaly of St. Patrick's Institution being the place of detention for young persons aged 16 to 21 years, yet there have been cases of persons as young as 15 years being held on remand in Mountjoy. I strongly urge the Department and the Minister to move swiftly on this issue and to provide the extra prison places and separate remand centre needed to effectively punish the criminal.
In relation to the recent suicide of a constituent of mine, I would like to quote from an article in the Garda management journal, Communiqué written by Mr. John Lonergan, the Governor of Mountjoy Prison, about dealing with remand prisoners. He said:
The second problem is lack of information on incoming prisoners. At present the only information received with a new committal is that contained on the legal warrant plus whatever information the prisoners themselves choose to provide. This presents a serious handicap for prison staff particularly late at night or over weekends when it may be difficult either to get information or to have information checked out. A proper assessment process prior to committal would help the situation enormously.
In other words, there should be psychiatric examination of people held on remand so that prison staff and remand staff know the importance of checking prisoners and keeping them under constant watch. I thank the Chair and I am grateful that the Minister with responsibility for those Departments is here tonight.
