The Kinlen Reports on Irish Prisons

InFront

I was perusing the Department of Justice website last night (as is a social custom on Friday nights in Ireland) and came across the annual Prison Inspector's reports by former Inspector and High Court Judge Mr. Justice Dermot Kinlen.

I inlude a link to the reports here
Annual Report 2007 (pdf file)
Annual Report 2006 (pdf file)
Annual Report 2005 (pdf file)
More reports and prison visitor's committee reports are available here

It has to be said to begin with, that the above doesn't make for light reading, admittedly these are extensive and repetitive documents. However, they do provide an amazing insight into the state of the country's prisons, its inmates, their reform, and most importantly of all, barriers to their reform.

Now I know to some of you this is quite old news, but I don't think I remember these reports receiving much attention at the time. Perhaps it's the kind of reporting you need to read to get a fair insight into, as opposed to a short report from an article.

Kinlen exposes some shocking facts about the prison service, particularly in relation to psychiatric facilities and alludes to some very disturbing patterns of psychiatrically ill prisoners not receiving medical attention, but being locked in special observation rooms - or 'padded cells' as they used to be known as.

The reports also make for some very disturbing reading in relation to abuse, corruption, bullying and in the prisons.

I have to say, one line that really struck me from the reports was a quote by the late Quaker and Prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry who said that prisons ought to be schools of industry and virtue, not the very nurseries of crime. On reading these reports, one can only can conclude that for all their expense - and the expense is great indeed - the prisons really only serve as the latter.

Even if you don't read all of it, I'd encourage people to at least skim through these reports to get an idea of their content and the current state of the prisons.

What do people think? Maybe this is all that prisoners deserve? Would you change the way prisons are governed and facilities that are provided to prisoners?

As a last contribution (sorry for rambling on), Kinlen also remarked on how prisons are run in places like Switzerland and the far east, where prisoners must work to pay for their upkeep, thus providing them with employment and possibly a job upon their release.
Furthermore, in some countries, prisoners families must help pay for their detention, or part of it - thus heightening the possibility that they will work to keep their relative out of the grasp of crime upon his or her release.

Huge and extensive topic, I know. Anyway - definitely worth the read if you're bored or have an interest guys!

johnnyskeleton

InFront wrote: »

I was perusing the Department of Justice website last night (as is a social custom on Friday nights in Ireland) and came across the annual Prison Inspector's reports by former Inspector and High Court Judge Mr. Justice Dermot Kinlen.

I inlude a link to the reports here
Annual Report 2007 (pdf file)
Annual Report 2006 (pdf file)
Annual Report 2005 (pdf file)
More reports and prison visitor's committee reports are available here

It has to be said to begin with, that the above doesn't make for light reading, admittedly these are extensive and repetitive documents. However, they do provide an amazing insight into the state of the country's prisons, its inmates, their reform, and most importantly of all, barriers to their reform.

Now I know to some of you this is quite old news, but I don't think I remember these reports receiving much attention at the time. Perhaps it's the kind of reporting you need to read to get a fair insight into, as opposed to a short report from an article.

Kinlen exposes some shocking facts about the prison service, particularly in relation to psychiatric facilities and alludes to some very disturbing patterns of psychiatrically ill prisoners not receiving medical attention, but being locked in special observation rooms - or 'padded cells' as they used to be known as.

The reports also make for some very disturbing reading in relation to abuse, corruption, bullying and in the prisons.

I have to say, one line that really struck me from the reports was a quote by the late Quaker and Prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry who said that prisons ought to be schools of industry and virtue, not the very nurseries of crime. On reading these reports, one can only can conclude that for all their expense - and the expense is great indeed - the prisons really only serve as the latter.

Even if you don't read all of it, I'd encourage people to at least skim through these reports to get an idea of their content and the current state of the prisons.

What do people think? Maybe this is all that prisoners deserve? Would you change the way prisons are governed and facilities that are provided to prisoners?

Irish prisons are pretty bad and need serious reform, but the reality is that:

1) by international standards (including US and other EU countries) Irish prisons are not that bad

2) in a recession the government is looking to cut costs rather than increase them, and are therefore unlikely to implement any reforms which will cost them money. The new prison in thornhill is probably not going to go through either.

InFront wrote: »

As a last contribution (sorry for rambling on), Kinlen also remarked on how prisons are run in places like Switzerland and the far east, where prisoners must work to pay for their upkeep, thus providing them with employment and possibly a job upon their release.
Furthermore, in some countries, prisoners families must help pay for their detention, or part of it - thus heightening the possibility that they will work to keep their relative out of the grasp of crime upon his or her release.

An interesting point of view, however it seems to me that we should have a greater community service system. At the moment the maximum is 240 hours and there is no formal system to give job placements. If we could get non-violent criminals to work on our roads or other public works it would be a good thing.

tallaght01

Prison facilities are a disaster here and in the UK (The only 2 European countries where i have experience of the conditions that prisoners live in).

Having said that, the conditions are infinitely better than in South Africa (Where I dealth with a lot of prisoners a few years ago).

I believe passionately that prisoners should have the same entitlements to the basic human rights that the rest of us have, with the exception of being detained against their will.

But, in difficult economic times, it's very easy for governments to ignore the rights of prisoners, and the conditions in which they live. Just try starting a thread in after hours on this very topic, and see how unsympathetic people are to these issues.

I think that's the problem. Any group that doesn't have a strong lobby group will always get shafted.

In healthcare, a good example is the population who have mental illness. Psychiatry is shockingly underfunded in ireland. This is despite the fact that mental illness is often very treatable. Comapre this to the massive funding given to the treatment of, say, childhood cancer. paediatric oncology is a trendy illness, and any lack of funding will be exploited in the media, and the government will take a hit.

Similarly, no one really gives a hoot if prisoners live in poor conditions, so nothing will be done about it.

Clytus

paediatric oncology is a trendy illness

emmm....Im not sure how comfortable I am with that rather flippant remark,regardless of the context you are using it in.

tallaght01

What's flippant about it?

Google the phrase "trendy illness" and I'm sure you'll find squillions of doctors using it.

It's a term used from frustration. People like to be associated with breast cancer, or any childhood cancer. People love coming on TV to talk about it, and celebrities love being involved in fundraisers for them. Health services in certain areas like these are better funded.

Schizophrenia isn't a trendy illness. There's no radio stations fundraising at xmas for them. There's always people running fun-runs and various other fundraisers for breast cancer. That's not the case for,say, mental illness.

When people have mammograms misread it's huge huge news. When the mentally ill die early because their care is poorly funded, it doesn't make the news.

My conscience is clear, regarding what I've done for kids with cancer, but I won't let it blind me to the reality. You are pretty unlikely to have been upset if I said adult bipolar disease is a trendy illness.

Kama

There are trendy illnesses, and ones less trendy; funds for 'em tend to be allocated on this basis, rather than on basis of how objectively serious they are, how many people die for them, or how cheap it would be to deal with them. I'm also reminded of Brass Eye: 'so you have the Bad Aids?'.

Prisons are for def untrendy; you have the lack of voice/lobby pressure, and the swift political 'soft on crime' moral panic attacks if anyone said anything about making improvments; 'sure prisons are there to punish people, aren't they?' and so forth.

Never mind that substandard conditions are most likely criminogenic, never mind that it damages the chances of rehabilitation...you'd probably find a general consensus if you did a poll that prisons are 'too easy', and would work better if they were harsher, and reduced human rights, and had daily floggings or whatever...

Never mind that evidence for this is pretty absent, and tends to go in the other direction...The retributive-deterrent argument has a lot of intuitive appeal, but less empirical standing.