This matter is a hoary chestnut at this stage. I ask the Minister for Justice to take urgent action to remedy the conditions and policies that give rise to the appalling profile of an Irish prison depicted by the Mountjoy Prison Visiting Committee in their 1991 report. The report is as bleak as could possibly be expected from a visiting committee but its bleakness is heightened by the fact that this visiting committee was appointed by the previous Minister for Justice, Deputy Burke, largely because he was dissatisfied with a previous visiting committee which produced a couple of hard hitting reports on the prison system and particularly on Mountjoy.
This visiting committee report is equally hard hitting and describes a prison in a scandalous condition. I will read the first three paragraphs to indicate the tenor of the report. It reads:
Mountjoy Prison is grossly overcrowded. The prisoners find themselves in multiple cells contrary to the rules of the Government of Prisons, 1947. On occasions there are no beds available. The serious riots during the year were caused primarily by boredom and frustration and by overcrowding.
Urgent steps should be taken forthwith by the Government to transform the prison system into a dignified rehabilitative centre. It is essential in this allegedly socially enlightened era.
Security, control and justice are the vital elements in the prison structure. Security and control are regularly used as excuses for negativing or minimising justice. They are, in fact, interdependent and justice should be the predominant one.
There is a rising prison population. The overcrowding of prisons develops inevitably into violence, sexual assaults, riots, drug addiction and episodes of ingrained viciousness.
Those are the opening paragraphs of the 1991 Mountjoy Prison report and they describe appalling conditions.
We could see further examples in what has appeared in the course of the year. The report on suicides in Irish prisons showed that the majority of suicides took place in Mountjoy Prison and that we had, in fact, double the English ratio of suicides per capita in prisons, treble that of Scotland and 16 times the rate that exists in the external population.
The report indicates quite clearly that the vast majority of prisoners do not do any work while in prison, they are not occupied in education, training or in any form of employment. It indicates that drugs are circulating widely in the prison — we are talking about illegal drugs — and expresses considerable concern at this and about the continuing supply of drugs to persons in prison, despite precautions that have been taken.
The committee are concerned that every prisoner is locked up for at least two-thirds of the day, 16 to 17 hours daily and also, as the report indicated, that they are deprived of privacy by the fact that they are placed in multiple cells contrary to the rules and regulations of 1947.
The committee put forward quite a number of specific proposals and I will enumerate a few of them just to give an idea of the proposals and what is possible. It is suggested that each prisoner should be assessed on arrival both in terms of his or her ability to undergo a long period of detention and also in terms of what type of employment or education they should be allotted in the prison. The committee proposed that judges, prosecuters and defenders should spend at least 24 hours in the prison to see the conditions themselves. Interestingly enough, there are a few categories of people who are allowed free access to the prisons, High Court judges, Cabinet members and bishops, none of whom seem to have any great desire to visit prisons.
The committee believe everybody should be allocated some form of employment in the prison, which does not happen now; that alternative methods of maintaining order should be looked at and that a degree of compassion and kindness might not be a bad idea. The committee talk about the fact that we are the only country in Europe that segregates our HIV positive prisoners and says it is counterproductive because there are at least as many prisoners in the general body of the prison who have the AIDS virus as are in the segregation units which stigmatise the prisoners. The report indicates that Dr. Fiona Mulcahy is available to attend a clinic in Mountjoy Prison but because the Departments of Health and Justice cannot get their act together she is not able to attend the prison and the prisoners have to be taken out to St. James's Hospital. It would be easier to attend them in the prison itself.
The visiting committee in their report ask that there be a special remand centre for prisoners. At present there is not and, of course, remand prisoners are not convicted. It is suggested that there should be a limit on the number of prisoners in prison and that we should not allow the prison to become grossly overcrowded; that temporary release is a worrying aspect of the system and that something should be done about it because people are released in a sort of revolving door system; that there should be greater staff training to come to terms with the complexity of relationship with the prison population; that the visiting committee themselves should meet at least annually and that they should have more effective powers than they have at present.
In relation to Limerick Prison, there have been serious assaults which are worrying. An investigation is going on at present. Where there is a single female prisoner, the Minister is on record as saying that consideration should be given to her with regard to isolation. Perhaps she should be transferred to the unit in Dublin rather than remaining the single female prisoner in the prison, surrounded by male prisoners.
I can tell the Minister that Portlaoise Prison is a powder keg at present. The number of political prisoners has been reduced but there are so many ordinary prisoners they do not have the facilities for recreation or work as have political prisoners. It is a very dangerous situation.
The Minister has indicated in a letter, which the Leader of the House gave to me recently, that he is looking into proposals in relation to prison policy and action to be taken regarding conditions, but he indicates quite clearly he does not envisage any legislative reforms taking place. That is not a sufficient reply. Successive Ministers have said they were looking at proposals and would do something about the system, but they stop short of providing a statutory basis. Perhaps the Minister is not aware that I am proposing a Bill to put before the Seanad. This whole area needs to be looked at and I would like the Minister to accept this Bill as a step towards prison reform. My Bill states it is:
a Bill entitled an Act to implement the Whitaker Report on the penal system, to provide that sentences of imprisonment shall be imposed only where necessary; to provide alternative sentences to imprisonment; to establish a Criminal Law Reform Commission; to make provision for the rights and living conditions of prisoners——
and so on.
If the Minister is really serious, he must first define the sanction of imprisonment, he must look at the prison rules and regulations, he must look at the old 19th century legislation underpinning the prison system, he must look at the report of the 1925 visiting committee and the basis on which it was made, in the context of the criticisms of the Mountjoy Visiting Committee. He must also look at the possibility of establishing an appeal board in relation to internal disciplinary matters, he must look at the Whitaker Committee and in view of the widespread criticism of the revolving door syndrome, he must look at the possibility of equalising the remission. At present it stands at one quarter for women and one third for men. If it were equalised at one third for both men and women, which is the way it is in Britain and in Northern Ireland, there would be better motivation in the prison system and we might get away from the revolving door syndrome which causes problems and natural concern in the community at large.
I would like in particular, to bring to the attention of the Minister the specific problems that exist in one prison, to indicate that this is not a new matter and to state that we need broad-ranging new policies to address the prison system.
