Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The inspector's reports coincided with a period of profound change in the Prison Service, during which the decades long problem of dependency on excessive prison overtime was finally confronted and overcome. As the Deputy will be aware, a situation had developed in the Prison Service whereby the capital budget and every other budget within the system were being cannibalised to fund overtime expenditure. This reached a peak in 2003, when €60 million was spent on overtime, accounting for approximately 20% of the entire prison budget. In order to reverse this wholly unsustainable dependence on overtime, I put in place a number of measures, including major cutbacks in overtime expenditure and new attendance arrangements. These measures led to cuts, for necessary operational reasons, in services to prisoners in the period covered by the inspector's reports.

Following prolonged negotiations, the POA in August 2005 accepted a proposal to eliminate overtime work and introduce new organisational and working arrangements which will provide long-term savings to the Exchequer of up to €25 million per annum. These new arrangements will not only restore, but also enhance prisoner regimes in the years ahead, particularly in terms of improving access to services, increasing the availability of better facilities and making more productive use of out-of-cell time for prisoners. In this regard, much progress has been made over the past 12 months in improving educational and workshop facilities for prisoners.

In St. Patrick's Institution, the refurbishment of five workshops will lead to FETAC accreditation in metalwork, woodwork, computers, industrial cleaning and other industrial skills. The new workshops will give constructive activity to over 70 inmates and their roll-out is almost complete. The refurbishment of Cloverhill Education Centre has recently been completed. Classes have now commenced and courses are being rolled out on a phased basis. In short, the circumstances adverted to by the inspector arose because the overtime dispute reached a crisis, but huge improvements have since been made.

The fourth annual report of the inspector covers the period from April 2005 to April 2006 and deals with a wide range of issues including staffing levels, the establishment of an inspector of prisons on a statutory footing, prisoners' rights to vote, the privatisation of prisons, recidivism, drug addiction and prisoners with psychiatric illnesses. In respect of shortcomings in conditions, the inspector called in his report for the immediate closure of St. Patrick's Institution. The lack of modern facilities at that institution has been the subject of justified criticism not only by the Inspector of Prisons, but also by other oversight and monitoring bodies.

The Government shares the view that St. Patrick's Institution is no longer suitable as a place of detention for young people and that its complete replacement is required. The institution, together with other detention facilities on the Mountjoy Prison complex, will be closed as soon as planned new facilities are constructed on a greenfield site at Thornton Hall, County Dublin, where separate facilities will be available for 16 and 17 year old boys. The new campus will allow us to develop progressive rehabilitative programmes and enhanced educational facilities and introduce single occupancy cells with in-cell sanitation to end the practice of slopping out.

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The development of the new prison campus will also provide the Prison Service with room for future expansion and ensure there will be no return to the revolving door of the mid-1990s, when the rainbow Government presided over a situation in which 20% of prisoners were on temporary release. By way of comparison, on 28 September 2006, there were 3,314 persons in the prison system, of whom 156, or 4.7%, were on temporary release. The reason for the significant reduction in the percentage of prisoners on temporary release between 1996 and 2006 is because the Government has provided some 1,100 net additional prison spaces since 1997. In addition, over 400 new places are being created at Shelton Abbey, Loughan House, Castlerea, Portlaoise and Wheatfield Prisons.

The inspector also calls for the elimination of drugs in prisons and the introduction of sniffer dogs in prisons such as Mountjoy. As the Deputy is aware, the elimination of drugs in our prisons is one of my key priorities. In order to achieve this, a drug detection dog was introduced into the prison system earlier this year. The service is based in the Midlands Prison and it is planned that trials will be carried out from that base. The initial phase is being used to test the effectiveness of drug dogs in prisons and to act as a learning exercise for the Prison Service to refine its precise approach in a wider deployment. The pilot has proved extremely successful to date and the dog has detected significant numbers of smuggling attempts. It is intended that the drug detection dog will be used in Mountjoy in the near future.

However, drug detection dogs are just one of a much wider range of measures contained in the new Prison Service drugs policy and strategy, which I launched earlier this year. The new policy and strategy provides, for the first time, a co-ordinated and consistent national approach to dealing with the thorny problem of supply of drugs, as well as ensuring appropriate treatment is available to prisoners to help them conquer their addictions. The policy is currently being rolled out across the prison system. The new replacement Mountjoy and Munster prison complexes will be constructed with an extensive perimeter to prevent drugs being thrown over the wall and will thus facilitate drug-free regimes.

In terms of prisoners with psychiatric illnesses, the inspector expressed concern regarding the treatment of mentally ill prisoners and prisoners with personality disorders and recommended the Department of Health and Children should take responsibility for such prisoners. The Irish Prison Service is committed to health care standards comparable to those obtaining in the wider community. Prisoners have access to medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological services within the prison system and the psychiatric needs of prisoners are served by visiting psychiatrists. The psychiatric service of the eastern coast area health board at the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, which is under the management of the HSE and the Department of Health and Children, provides regular weekly counselling and treatment sessions at Dublin prisons. In other locations, services are provided by local psychiatrists.

Offenders who, in the opinion of the psychiatrist and the prison doctor, are in need of inpatient psychiatric treatment may be transferred by order to either the Central Mental Hospital or a district mental hospital. However, the Central Mental Hospital is the only psychiatric inpatient hospital that will accept prisoners. Due to increased demand on this facility in recent years, it has frequently been the situation that waiting lists build up for admission, requiring priority to be based on clinical need. This situation arises despite the general agreement regarding the necessity for admission and, while awaiting a bed to become available, the prison authorities may be left with no alternative but to seek to manage a disturbed individual in conditions which provide the greatest degree of protection for the individual, other prisoners and staff. My Department and the Prison Service is continually engaged with the Department of Health and Children and the HSE in a process aimed at co-ordinating the provision of health care to prisoners.

I have honoured my commitment to abolish the use of old-style padded cells by introducing newly designed and improved cells. Special observation cells are not used for routine reasons but only in cases where prisoners are in a highly agitated state and at risk of harming themselves or others. No mentally ill prisoner awaiting a move to the Central Mental Hospital is detained in a special cell unless this is unavoidable. Such a practice is not commonplace but takes place only where the safety of prisoners require it.

I have appointed Mr. Mellet to carry out an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Mr. Gary Douch while in custody in Mountjoy Prison, which will establish what action was taken by the Prison Service, management and staff to safeguard Mr. Douch; to clarify whether Mr. Douch had expressed special concerns about his safety; to establish what procedures were followed and their adequacy; to establish the procedures used to allocate prisoners to the cell in which Mr. Douch died; to establish the level of monitoring during the night of 31 July to 1 August 2006; and to make any observations and recommendations Mr. Mellet sees fit. I intend that the report by Mr. Mellet will be published in due course, with the exception of any parts which could be deemed prejudicial to potential criminal proceedings.

I have not received yet Mr. Mellet's report. He has, however, already made a valuable interim recommendation that, where a prisoner seeks specific protection because of an alleged threat from another prisoner and the prison authorities accept there may be some substance to the allegation, the prisoner should be removed to a single occupancy cell or room for at least 24 hours while the case is assessed. This recommendation has been accepted by me and was implemented immediately by the prison authorities.

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