Irish prisons 'degrading and dangerous'

yrwhu8jxtni06a · 10-02-2011 01:05PM #1

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0210/prison.html

Europe's leading human rights organisation has found evidence of degrading, dangerous and hazardous conditions both for prisoners and staff in a large number of Ireland's prisons and psychiatric hospitals.
The Strasbourg-based Committee for the Prevention of Torture highlighted a range of problems relating to violence and drug use, as well as a lack of training for personnel.
The Council of Europe, a 47-country organisation promoting democracy and human rights, oversees the committee.
In January and Febuary last year, the committee sent a nine-person delegation to investigate conditions at eight garda stations, six prisons and four hospitals relating to mental health or disabilities.
The delegation found a range of serious problems from overcrowding to drug misuse to gang-related violence within prisons.
The report speaks of Mountjoy Prison having a drug-fuelled gang culture where stabbings, slashings and assaults happen on an almost daily basis.
Conditions in Cork Prison were described as degrading and a health hazard, while the committee urged an end to the continued practice of slopping out at Portlaoise Prison.
The delegation also expressed deep concern at the use of special observation cells, especially due to temperatures and the clothing prisoners were given to wear.
Concern too was expressed at the level of violence between patients and towards staff at both St Brendan's and St Ita's psychiatric hospitals.
The Government has already provided a detailed response to the report and its various recommendations.
It referred to a dramatic increase in the prison population from over 3,000 at the time of the last committee visit in 2006 to over 5,000 prisoners now.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust said candidates in the election should 'take heed of this national disgrace and commit to rectifying the many human rights issues identified in the report'.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has called for the incoming Government to act swiftly to implement the report's recommendations.

Jesus it must be awful working in these places,even visiting a loved one locked up there must be frighting,of course the bankers,developers/corrupt politicians don't get locked up :mad:

Naikon · 10-02-2011 01:10PM

Not surprising imo.

Hande hoche! · 10-02-2011 01:10PM

At least they have their smuggled in mobile phones.

martic · 10-02-2011 01:13PM

Fcuk them, out breaking rocks with picks the scum should be not getting "rehabilitated" with state funds provided by decent law abiding citizens.

Hande hoche! · 10-02-2011 01:14PM

martic wrote: »

Fcuk them, out breaking rocks with picks the scum should be not getting "rehabilitated" with state funds provided by decent law abiding citizens.

Ideally in the hot sun.

biko · 10-02-2011 01:15PM

More prison gangs = more violence.
Divide and conquer.

aDeener · 10-02-2011 01:16PM

once they aren't a hazard to the decent people working there, i really couldn't give a shite tbh

iregk · 10-02-2011 01:23PM

Have to say and it may sound harsh. Once you go outside of the law and become a ciminal you give up your human rights as far as I'm concerned. Fcuk them!

phasers · 10-02-2011 01:26PM

If you want rights then don't get put in prison.

ejmaztec · 10-02-2011 01:30PM

If they were that bad, then no-one would be stupid enough to commit a crime would they?

mike65 · 10-02-2011 01:33PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

If they were that bad, then no-one would be stupid enough to commit a crime would they?

/raised eyebrow

The prison population has risen to about 5000, when I was a lad it was about 2000, so is Ireland x 2.5 more criminal or are judges x 2.5 more likely to send you to jail?

Fremen · 10-02-2011 01:34PM

phasers wrote: »

If you want rights then don't get put in prison.

Yeah, fúck it. Steal a car, sign away your human rights.

RichieC · 10-02-2011 01:38PM

Christ, this place is full of fascists..

10-02-2011 01:40PM

Fremen wrote: »

Yeah, fúck it. Steal a car, sign away your human rights.

That's right.
Unpaid fines because you're broke? - sign away your human rights
Be in the wrong place at wrong time and/or falsely accused of something? - sign away your human rights

I'm glad everyone has such faith in our justice system while at the same time having no faith in the potential of rehabilitation, it's so inspiring

ScumLord · 10-02-2011 01:40PM

I heard they're full of criminals too.

martic wrote: »

Fcuk them, out breaking rocks with picks the scum should be not getting "rehabilitated" with state funds provided by decent law abiding citizens.

So you want to take criminals and put them on a rigorous fitness program in conditions that will inspire them to hate society more? Maybe we should let them keep the pickaxe when they're leaving too?

Fremen · 10-02-2011 01:41PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

If they were that bad, then no-one would be stupid enough to commit a crime would they?

That's impressively naive. Countries with much worse prison systems than ours still have high crime rates. Even countries with the death penalty have high crime rates.

Deterrents against crime are only part of the solution. If you make the punishment twice as bad, you don't cut crime in half.

ejmaztec · 10-02-2011 01:43PM

Fremen wrote: »

That's impressively naive.

Thanks, I'm glad you're impressed.

Fremen · 10-02-2011 01:45PM

bluewolf wrote: »

That's right.
Unpaid fines because you're broke? - sign away your human rights
Be in the wrong place at wrong time and/or falsely accused of something? - sign away your human rights

I'm glad everyone has such faith in our justice system while at the same time having no faith in the potential of rehabilitation, it's so inspiring

You know I was being ironic, right? :pac:

It's a bit sad that my earlier post could pass as a genuine response from a typical boardsie.

Cantona's Collars · 10-02-2011 01:47PM

Serious crime deserves serious time,what I don't agree with is people who can't/don't pay tv license fees end up in jail while absolute scum walk the streets.
Some of the scumbags down my way see doing time as a badge of honour and not something to be feared-we need that Sheriff from Texas over to sort them out.

ejmaztec · 10-02-2011 01:47PM

mike65 wrote: »

/raised eyebrow

The prison population has risen to about 5000, when I was a lad it was about 2000, so is Ireland x 2.5 more criminal or are judges x 2.5 more likely to send you to jail?

That was probably when crime was just a hobby for a select few, instead of a national pastime.:D

jackiebaron · 10-02-2011 01:48PM

martic wrote: »

Fcuk them, out breaking rocks with picks the scum should be not getting "rehabilitated" with state funds provided by decent law abiding citizens.

Wow! Wish I was as hard as you.

Nodin · 10-02-2011 01:51PM

zerks wrote: »

Serious crime deserves serious time,what I don't agree with is people who can't/don't pay tv license fees end up in jail while absolute scum walk the streets.
Some of the scumbags down my way see doing time as a badge of honour and not something to be feared-we need that Sheriff from Texas over to sort them out.

Nobody was advocating shorter sentences.

"that sherrif" is from Arizona and he runs the county jails. These hold lesser offenders, a great number of them in there for non-payment of bills and fines.

Nodin · 10-02-2011 01:52PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

That was probably when crime was just a hobby for a select few, instead of a national pastime.:D

No, it was probably during times of high emmigration, when we sent our saints and scholars abroad....

Ficheall · 10-02-2011 01:52PM

I dislike the way they seem to have lumped 'psychiatric hospitals' and 'prisons' together as though people therein deserved the same treatment.

The old "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime." idea doesn't have much weight if this "time" isn't really all that unpleasant...

JJJJNR · 10-02-2011 01:54PM

There are a lot more people getting put away for not paying fines these days, I think this is a joke, the system needs to be changed. If you were to take this population out of prisons I'm sure this situation would improve.

The prisons are also full with people who are mentally ill, yet the system judges everyone the same.

Its wrong that the biggest criminals of all will never set foot in places like this.

ejmaztec · 10-02-2011 01:55PM

Fremen wrote: »

That's impressively naive. Countries with much worse prison systems than ours still have high crime rates. Even countries with the death penalty have high crime rates.

Deterrents against crime are only part of the solution. If you make the punishment twice as bad, you don't cut crime in half.

I knew that some people would get upset if I missed out >

.

Fremen · 10-02-2011 01:56PM

zerks wrote: »

Serious crime deserves serious time

The thing is - who decides what serious crime is? We can probably agree that murder, battery and sexual assault are serious crimes.

As far as I can tell, this is a breakdown of the number of people sent to prison in 2006. About 5% of the prison population were sentenced for the crimes I mentioned. The rest are there for damage to property, road traffic offences and drug offences.

zerks wrote: »

we need that Sheriff from Texas over to sort them out.

Walker, Texas ranger?

Nodin · 10-02-2011 01:58PM

Chuck is 70 or so now. I doubt the damp would do him any good.....

celticbest · 10-02-2011 01:59PM

If you obey the law of the land then you need not worry what condition prisons are in, although at this stage everyone knows the state our prisons are in so if you don't want to end up in one as the old saying goes

"Don't do the Crime if you can't do the Crime"

Fremen · 10-02-2011 02:03PM

celticbest wrote: »

If you obey the law of the land then you need not worry what condition prisons are in, although at this stage everyone knows the state our prisons are in so if you don't want to end up in one as the old saying goes

"Don't do the Crime if you can't do the Crime"

Taking your argument to its logical extreme, we might as well harvest the organs of criminals and donate them to ordinary, decent folk. Hey, if you don't want your organs harvested, don't do the crime.

cursai · 10-02-2011 02:03PM

Theres more important problems with our institutions than the ones we set up to facilitate the people who cause a lot of the problems in the first place!
Put them on the low priority list!

Irish prisons 'degrading and dangerous'

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