While security and compassion will always be in tension in a carceral environment, little evidence exists to demonstrate an equal footing.

Much complexity has been added to the day-to-day working of Irish prisons over the past 20 months; ranging from necessary health protocols to ever-increasing restrictive regimes by way of serious technological upgrades, but it may be more helpful to reflect on the initial decarceral instinct of policymakers.

Peter McVerry SJ was on the Whitaker Committee in 1984 which reported to government the following year that communities are made safer not when we imprison more people for longer, but when those we imprison are released as better people, with more skills, more opportunities open to them and more hope that their future can be different from their past.

Early in the book, I read the sentence that has stayed with me longest: “Is it not time for some prison walls to come down and for society to have the courage and foresight to explore other options to address the issues of crime and punishment?”

A timely Inspector of Prisons’ Annual Report, published by the Department on Friday, provides much which should form the basis of such a debate on the future of our prison system. Here are what we in the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice consider the main points of interest in the report.

With the emergence of multiple vaccines, Ireland is in a very different position today compared with five months ago, when we entered into the highest level of lockdown just after Christmas. Yesterday, the Minister for Health announced that more than half of the adult population had received their first dose of a vaccine, with over… Read more »

“I want to make a simple proposal that if our judges were more aware of the prison environment, to have walked the tiled floors or listened to the experiences of those they may have imprisoned first-hand, the numbers in pre-trial custody would reduce.” Peter McVerry SJ

It is important to ask why a request to vaccinate prisoners in the early stages of the programme is met with vehemence and opposition. The force of emotion expressed reflects something of our punitive instinct around justice and this particular instance exposes how in the end, that desire is self-destructive.

Keith Adams considers, from a sociological and theological perspective, what it means for the terminally-ill to die in prison.

Chaplains are unique, in that they have no agenda other than the welfare of prisoners and prison officers. There is no career path or advancement for chaplains that might compromise how they work. Thus, they are almost universally respected by prisoners who place a high level of trust in them. They will talk to the chaplain about issues in their life, traumas they may have experienced in childhood and their fears for the future. Most prison officers, too, hold the chaplain in high regard and appreciate the work they do.