Deputy McCartan gave me notice of his intention to raise the matter of the report of the visiting committee from Mountjoy Prison in 1989 and the details it disclosed regarding conditions in the prison. Deputy McCartan knows the procedure.
Adjournment Debate. - Prison Visiting Committee Report.
I thank the Chair for facilitating me in raising this important issue with the Minister for Justice.
The picture of conditions in Mountjoy, depicted in the report of the visiting committee, is a shocking one which should outrage all civilised people. There is considerable public controversy at the moment about the conditions under which animals are kept in Dublin Zoo. Those under which prisoners are detained in Mountjoy do not seem to be much better.
I have to base my comments on newspaper accounts of the report of the visiting committee, as the report has not been laid before the House or circulated to Deputies. But there is enough in these reports to see that there is very serious cause for concern.
I deplore the attacks made on the visiting committee both by the Minister for Justice and the Prison Officers Association. I do not know the members of this visiting committee but I am sure they are ordinary decent people, interested in the welfare of prisoners and with no particular axe to grind. I do not believe they are in it for whatever minimal expenses are paid to them, and what they do can hardly be considered to be fun. It is an outrage that they should be vilified for repeating in the report allegations which have been made to them by prisoners and for doing something that is no more than their duty. The fact that the Minister for Justice earlier this year refused to reappoint all but one of the committee, which in previous reports have also drawn attention to the unacceptable conditions in the prison, suggests that the Minister believes that the role of the committee is to be compliant and to turn a blind eye to the horrors of life in Mountjoy.
This report has to be seen against the background of continuing suicides in Mountjoy. Within the past 12 months we have seen the first suicide in the women's prison, with the death of 19 year old Sharon Gregg and within the past few weeks St. Patrick's has claimed its first teenage victim. It also has to be considered against the background of the deplorable situation where, as a result of the failure of the Government to provide a therapeutic centre for young offenders, 15 year old girls are being held in custody with adult habitual offenders, some of whom have been convicted of serious offences.
I am particularly concerned about the situation in the women's prison. It is, of course, misleading even to refer to it as a women's prison. It is a women's floor in a male prison. It is 21 years since it was recommended that it should be closed, but the women are still there. Unlike the situation with men, where there are a number of different prisons and prisoners can be held in different places according to the seriousness of their offences — open prison, moderate or high security unit — all female prisoners are dumped in together. This means that shoplifters are held with murderers, women in for begging are held with drug pushers and those jailed for non-payment of fines are dumped in with recidivists.
Most of the women held in Mountjoy are there for offences which do not merit detention in a high security prison. Many should not be in prison at all, but should be serving non-custodial sentences. Most of the others should be held in an open prison.
The Mountjoy complex was built in the Victorian period and reflects the standards and values of that era. There is overcrowding, inadequate sanitary and living conditions, and poor recreational and training facilities. It is beyond redemption and should be closed down. The package announced yesterday by the Minister for Justice will not be sufficient to save it. The phasing out of Mountjoy should begin now with the ultimate aim of closing it fully within a specified period. The Government should also set a timetable for the full implementation of the Whitaker report. I would take the opportunity to compliment the Minister to the extent that he has announced a programme that is moving in the spirit of what Whitaker has recommended. I hope that particularly in the context of the women's prison, many of those probation and welfare officers to be appointed will be employed to see that those who are there unnecessarily will be released at an early stage.
I have dealt on several occasions by way of reply to Dáil questions and otherwise with many of the issues raised in the report in question.
It is not possible in the course of a five minute reply to deal as fully as I would wish with all of these issues, but I shall concentrate on what I believe to be the three main issues: physical conditions at Mountjoy Prison; conditions generally in the Women's Prison; and allegations of assault by prison officers on male offenders.
Mountjoy is a Victorian prison. Its structural layout reflects the custodial thinking of another age — Wheatfield, which is recognised as one of the most modern prisons in the world, is what we see as being appropriate today.
There are limits to what I or anybody else can do with Mountjoy — Governments all over the world are having the same difficulties in coping with old buildings. Its replacement was planned some years ago but abandoned because of the enormous cost involved and because of the need at the time to bring order into the public finances. A new Mountjoy would cost anything from £70 million to £100 million and the taxpayers simply cannot afford that kind of money at present. In the meantime, all that can be done by any Minister is to improve as best we can on what we have, and that is precisely what I am endeavouring to do.
I would like to mention some examples by way of addressing some of the comments made by the visiting committee. Plans are well in advance to have the "holding cabins" referred to by the committee replaced; the new kitchen for Mountjoy is at contract stage, will cost aabout £750,000 and is due for construction in the New Year. The provision of emergency communication facilities in Mountjoy is proceeding as quickly as possible and has been on-going for some time. The new facilities are now operational in one wing, work is proceeding on the other wings and the expectation is that all the work will be completed by the end of next year; medical facilities at Mountjoy and at other institutions are being reviewed fully at the present time by the recently appointed medical director for the Prison Service. This appointment incidentally was recommended by the Whitaker report and I am glad to say I was the one who acted on it; in the past few days I have announced plans for considerable progress in the provision of in-cell sanitation generally; and the new unit for offenders suffering from infectious diseases who need special care has gone to tender.
In relation to the Women's Prison I want to emphasise that, of course, I am concerned about comments which are made from time to time and that is why I am improving the facilities. These improvements will be quite extensive. They are not, as one commentator described them, a "whitewash". At an estimated cost of £1.5 million, it would, indeed, be a very expensive coat of whitewash. Women will no longer share a block with male offenders, they will have much more space, will have single cell accommodation with in-cell sanitation and it will be possible in that situation to address many of the criticisms which have been made in a more effective manner.
I was, as this House knows, extremely concerned about a comment made by the same visiting committee in their report for 1988 to the effect that female offenders had been batoned by male officers. I immediately referred that matter to the Garda Commissioner, a Garda investigation was set in motion and will be completed in the New Year.
This, of course, brings me to the point that somewhat similar comments are contained in the committee's report this year concerning assaults on male offenders. I do not wish to be involved in public controversy with any visiting committee who have a job to do and by and large do it quite well, but I am extremely concerned that the committee did not send a report to me immediately about their concerns as provided for by law.
They did report it.
Section 3 of the Prisons (Visiting Committees) Act, 1925, provides that
it shall be the duty of every Visiting Committee ... to report to the Minister any abuses observed or found by them in such prison.
It was not necessary for the committee to be satisfied "beyond reasonable doubt" about the validity of serious allegations made to them in order to bring their concerns to my attention or to the attention of the governor.
The committee would have been aware that governors act when they receive specific complaints — the Governor in Mountjoy actually referred cases for Garda investigation where complaints were made to him by prisoners during 1989. These complaints were made directly by the offenders themselves to the governor. It is not good enough for the committee or anybody else to say that they mentioned their concerns in the minutes of their routine monthly meetings — incidentally, my Department cannot trace any record of receipt of such minutes during the period in question. In any event, the statutory responsibility to report concerns to the Minister is certainly not discharged in this way and I can say that neither I nor any of my officials was aware of the committee's concerns. There is no percentage to be gained by any Minister for Justice in ignoring reports of criminal assaults.
Finally, there is one aspect of this matter which must not be lost sight of, and that is the very great concern caused to prison officers as a body (who have to deal with offenders day in and day out — about serious allegations of criminal assault on unnamed offenders by unnamed staff. They are entitled to be given the details and as entitled as everyone else in the community to the protection afforded by law to those charged in this way.