Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice Welcomes Prison Service Plan to use 'Structured Release' to Reduce the Current Prison Population, but Expresses Dismay at the Absence of any Commitment to Ending Multiple Occupancy of Cells

For Immediate Release

Wednesday, 2 May, 2012 (10:00 a.m.)

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has welcomed the publication, on 30 April 2012, of the new three-year Strategic Plan of the Irish Prison Service and says it includes several commitments which, if implemented, would represent significant improvements in the Irish prison system.

In particular, the Centre warmly welcomes the plan to use 'structured release' under a new Community Return Programme to reduce the current prison population. In its recently published report, The Irish Prison System: Vision, Values, Reality, the Jesuit Centre argued that a core objective of policy should be to reduce the numbers in prison in Ireland. It saw this as necessary not just because of the need to deal with the current level of overcrowding – with its seriously detrimental consequences for prison conditions and regimes – but because imprisonment should be seen as 'the punishment of last resort', with other non-custodial penalties being employed as far as possible.

Absence of Commitment to Principle of Single-Cell Occupancy

The Jesuit Centre says, however, that it is extremely disappointed that the Strategic Plan does not contain any commitment to ending multiple-occupancy of prison cells. Eoin Carroll, Advocacy and Policy Officer with the Centre, said: "While the Plan states explicitly that its proposed actions take account of international best practice and human rights treaties, it makes no reference to the requirement of the European Prison Rules, drawn up by the Council of Europe, which state clearly that single cell occupancy should be the norm, and that only in exceptional circumstances, where it is deemed to be in the interests of prisoners, should there be resort to cell-sharing. Over recent years, the Irish Prison Service and the Department of Justice seem to have abandoned adherence to this principle in planning for new prison building. It is disappointing that the new Strategic Plan was not seen as an opportunity to move back to a commitment to the principle of single cell occupancy."

Mr Carroll added: "Over the life-time of this Plan, several important prison building projects will be carried out – in particular, the replacement of Cork Prison and of parts of Limerick Prison. The accommodation provided as a result of this three-year prison building programme will remain in use for decades to come. It should be a core feature of policy that this new prison accommodation would conform to the highest standards, including having single cell occupancy as the norm."

Mr Carroll also said that while the commitment in the Strategy to end 'slopping out was welcome, it should not be assumed that this would result in an end to degrading conditions in prison. He said: "The failure to commit to single cell accommodation means that it will continue to be the case that huge numbers of prisoners are forced to use the toilet in the presence of others. Currently, the majority of the 845 prisoners who 'slop out' do so in the presence of others; when slopping out ends, these prisoners will join the 1,885 prisoners who have to use normal toilet facilities in the presence of others."

Fr Peter McVerry SJ, who works with the Jesuit Centre, said that the emphasis in the Plan on providing programmes of education, training and work for prisoners was welcome. However, he was puzzled about the Plan's proposals regarding using incentives to encourage prisoners participate in programmes. Fr McVerry said: "In my experience, people in prison are eager to take part in work, training and education programmes – but are often not able to do so because provision of facilities and programmes is not adequate to meet the level of need. The issue in my view is not one of prisoner motivation – but rather the reality that the increase in the numbers detained in prisons in recent decades has not been matched by a corresponding increase in the provision of services. The recent report on prisons by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice highlighted many examples of the serious shortfalls in current provision."**

Fr McVerry added: "The Strategic Plan does not draw attention to the massive infrastructural deficit which needs to be addressed if adequate opportunities for education and training in our prisons are to be provided. An Appendix to the Strategic Plan includes commitments to expansion of work, training and education facilities – but these commitments relate to 2015 and 2016 and this is simply too late."

Finally, Fr McVerry said that the Plan makes no reference to the reality that the key role which prison chaplains can play in providing essential day-to-day support for prisoners is being seriously eroded by a staffing embargo. "For example, whereas previously there would have been three to four chaplains in Mountjoy Prison and one in St. Patrick's Institution, there is now only one full-time and one part-time chaplain serving these prisons."

[Ends]

For further information, questions or queries please contact:

Eoin Carroll

01 855 6814/087 225 0793

[Notes]

**Re: current provision of education and training in prisons

The recent report of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, The Irish Prison System: Vision, Values, Reality, drew attention to several examples of where prisons had been extended to accommodate far more prisoners than originally envisaged – but where no, or a very limited, increase in training and education facilities had been provided for. The report also highlighted instances where education and training provision had to be curtailed because staff vacancies had not been filled.

For example:

In Mountjoy Prison, there is structured activity for only half of the prison's population. In 2011, the library was open for only 30 per cent of its scheduled time, while there were 18 vacancies in officer posts for the supervision of workshops.

In Cork prison, where there is a purpose-built education unit, six out of the seventeen workshop posts are vacant.

The Midlands Prison will shortly become the largest prison in Ireland, with the coming into operation of an additional 300 spaces. However, there has been no corresponding increase in provision for work, training and education.

Wheatfield Prison, originally designed to be a 'model prison', now has a population twice that envisaged when the prison was first built. Yet again, the increased accommodation was not matched by simultaneous increases in the provision of work, training or education services. Promises to provide additional facilities will only come on stream several years after the completion of the additional accommodation. In 2011, the library in Wheatfield was open less than 15 per cent of its scheduled time.

In Castlerea Prison, half of the prison officer instructor posts were vacant in November 2011

For the 20 per cent of prisoners who are 'on protection', access to work, training or education services is extremely limited. Segregation of gangs also has an extremely detrimental effect on the capacity of the system to provide structured education and training programmes.

The report calls for a radical change in prison policy. It provides an in-depth analysis of the prison system and outlines 15 recommendations for the future.

The paper highlights a need for a clearer articulation of values and the upholding of international human rights principles, concluding with a chapter of 15 recommendations.

Click here for Report 'The Irish Prison System:Vision, Values, Reality'.

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Time to end bankrupt prison policy, says Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has called on the Government to adopt a radically different approach to imprisonment, ending what it describes as the bankrupt policy of recent decades.

Speaking as the Jesuit Centre's report, The Irish Prison System: Vision, Values, Reality, is published, Fr Peter McVerry SJ, who works with the Centre, said: "Penal policy over the past twenty years has passively accepted a continual rise in the prison population. More and more prison places have been provided – at huge cost. But the result has been a bit like running up a down escalator: the improvements in basic conditions that could have been expected to occur as a result of new prison building have been largely wiped out by increasing levels of overcrowding." Fr McVerry added:"The Minister for Justice and the prison system now needs to systematically set about reducing the numbers in prison and should set a limit to the population at around 2,700."

An international conference with presentations from leading academics, policy makers and practitioners, taking place in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Registration is now open.

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