Prison Work

Senna wrote:

From what i see lately, our prison service is just a big day care center, prisoners have easy access to drugs, watch tv, lessen to radio's, do their leaving cert and other courses. 50% of them will be back in prison soon after being let out.

So if prison is no deterrent to career criminals, could we not have them doing something to benefit the country while there in there. Ideally i'd like to see them out breaking rocks in the middle of winter, but thats never going to happen.

But could they not be made to make stuff, like in America where they make license plates and loads more, or US companies can hire prison workers (while still incarcerated). They could be paid .02c an hour and work 12 hours a day, then maybe the country could benefit from this drain on society.

Today's Irish Times wrote:

Many prisons unsafe and degrading, report finds

Many of the State's prisons are unsafe and degrading for prisoners and staff due to a growing culture of violence, worsening drug problems and poor physical conditions, according to a Council of Europe report due to be published today, writes Carl O'Brien.

Inspectors from the council's human rights watchdog, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, also found significant evidence of verbal and physical mistreatment of people in Garda custody.

The committee, which visited 10 Garda stations, seven prisons and the Central Mental Hospital last year, has recommended sweeping changes aimed at providing greater protection for the rights of people in detention.

It concluded that the culture of violence in Mountjoy and Limerick prisons and St Patrick's Institution for Young Offenders meant they were unsafe for both prisoners and staff. In particular, it said the killing of Gary Douche in Mountjoy Prison in the summer of 2006 was "a tragic illustration of the unsafe nature of certain prisons in Ireland".

It also found that conditions of detention were degrading in many cells in Cork, Mountjoy and Limerick prisons, with prisoners still forced to defecate in chamber pots in the presence of other inmates.

The committee said that while the majority of people it met in Garda custody did not have complaints about their treatment, a "considerable number" of those arrested alleged that they received verbal or physical ill-treatment.

The report says: "The alleged ill-treatment consisted mostly of kicks, punches and blows with batons to various parts of the body.

"In a number of cases, the delegation's medical doctors found that the persons concerned displayed injuries and scars which were consistent with their allegations of ill-treatment."

In a response to the findings, to be published as an attachment to the report, the Government said it did not accept that some prisons were unsafe, but pledged to do more to improve standards across the prison service.

It said it was investing in renovating old prison wings and building a number of new prisons to replace older facilities.

"The growth of organised criminal gangs outside prison has had obvious consequences within the prison system itself.

"The manner in which these groups operate on the outside is now, in fact, being mirrored on the inside and presents a significant challenge to the Irish Prison Service," it said.

In a joint statement, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the Irish Penal Reform Trust said it was clear that the State was failing to protect prisoners from harm.

Mark Kelly, director of the ICCL, said the evidence of mistreatment of suspects in Garda custody underlined the need for all Garda practices to be human rights proofed.