Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We had a chance to debate a motion on this issue last week and the issues with which we are dealing now are essentially the same as those on which we reflected last week. We in Sinn Féin will support the Bill, having supported the motion last week, because we know of the urgency of constructing a new prison in Cork. I had an opportunity, as a member of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, to visit the prison. While I commend the Governor of the prison on his honesty and professionalism, as well as his team, they are all very open about the fact that conditions in the prison are unacceptable and are not in any way what they would desire. They also made a presentation to us that day on what was planned for the new Cork Prison. We had a chance to get a sense of the site and the challenges facing it. When one builds a new prison it is not always easy to find a location for it and I accept that there are challenges. At the initial presentation on this matter by the Minister at our committee and during the debate on the motion last week, I urged that the concerns of residents be listened to as much as possible in the construction phase. In the North of Ireland there have been a number of opportunities for Ministers to try to ensure as much as possible that local employment is provided in the construction phases of major projects.

I ask the Government to bring the benefits to the people of the city, where possible. I am sure the jobs will be much needed. That is not the most important issue, however. The most important issue is to have a modern prison that reflects the vision for penal reform. The all-party report of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality submitted a five point plan on decarceration to reduce prison numbers by one third in the next ten years. We investigated community service and restorative justice as alternatives to prison. I understand the Government will be introducing a fines (amendment) Bill later this year. That will be crucial to ending the practice whereby people go to prison for non-payment of fines. There are ways of gathering fines and holding people to account which do not entail putting people into prison.

One of the issues that was brought to our attention is that managing prisons can be frustrating for governors. They must do their best to meet the challenge of rehabilitation and maintaining morale while also dealing with a steady flow of prisoners through the doors of their prisons. A governor cannot turn away an individual who is sentenced to prison. The result is overcrowding and the practice of slopping out, which belongs to the Victorian era. We should provide for single cell occupancy in order that people who are sent to prison are not treated as if they are less than human. They are already being punished by dint of imprisonment and they may also be meeting their responsibility to society by participating in rehabilitation, training and reorienting their lives while they are in prison.

The committee had an opportunity to travel to Helsinki for an intensive series of meetings with a range of experts from the justice committee of the Finnish Parliament, the parole board and leading lights of academia, as well as a visit to an open prison. When someone is sentenced to prison in Finland, an exit plan is developed for him or her. At present in Ireland, a prisoner can have 25% of his or her sentence remitted simply by keeping his or her head down. Remission is not linked to demonstrable rehabilitation. The committee's report argues that the period of remission should be increased to 33% as an incentive for prisoners to follow a clear path back into society. That is in the best interest of prisoners and, more important, society. The issue of value for money also arises because it costs €65,000 per annum to keep a prisoner. That is a huge amount of money for taxpayers to spend.

International best practice indicates that certain prisoners should not be held in shared cells, particularly those who are under protection or serving life sentences and, arguably, those who are recovering from drug addiction. We need to give individual prisoners the space they require for various reasons. A practical reality must also be borne in mind, however. If prisoners are sharing a cell overnight, the practical reality is that they will have to use the toilet in front of each other. That is not what we should want for our prison system because it undermines the dignity of those affected. The Irish Penal Reform Trust and Fr. Peter McVerry have criticised the plans for Cork. The prison will have 275 cells but only 30 are intended as single occupancy. The fact that only 10% of the accommodation in a brand new prison will be single occupancy is a missed opportunity given what we now know. I appreciate that we cannot provide single occupancy in every cell but in a context where 59 prisoners are currently under protection in Cork Prison, 30 single occupancy cells appear to be inadequate. Where was the consultation with the Irish Penal Reform Trust, the joint committee or prisoner advocacy groups? Are these plans simply the result of a group of architects and the prison authorities doing the best they could with the site? This is a missed opportunity.

If in the future we implement a decarceration strategy to decrease prisoner numbers, many of the cells that are currently intended to be shared could become single occupancy but that would be by accident rather than design. Even at this late stage I urge the Government to take on board the legitimate concerns of those it regards as respected partners and consider amending its plans. My party is not going to vote against this Bill and we did not vote against the motion introduced last week even though we have concerns about the proposal. However, I ask the Government to investigate whether it can increase the number of single occupancy cells. I do not believe any prisoners should sleep overnight in shared cells.

Nelson Mandela, who may leave this life very soon, famously said that to know how a country works, one should visit its prisons to see how those on the bottom rung are treated. Perhaps we should be inspired by his advice in getting the design of this prison right. How can we make it better than what is currently proposed? The refurbishment plans for Mountjoy Prison have had a big impact on single cell occupancy. The all-party recommendations of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality are progressive and address the need for somebody who commits a crime to pay his or debt to society. The committee does not take a soft-touch approach to justice. Restorative justice requires offenders to take responsibility and meeting one's victim face-to-face is not an easy way out. Community service is a way of repaying a debt to society by working for the community. These approaches are not soft on crime but they offer a means of rehabilitating offenders while also saving money for the taxpayer.

The Government has our goodwill in respect of this project. I appreciate that it can pass the Bill without our co-operation and we support the Bill, albeit with serious reservations. I urge the Government to find a means of increasing the number of single occupancy cells in order to protect prisoners who are vulnerable or in need of rehabilitation. The prison authorities will know better than me the projected figures. The criticism of the Government's plans has been stinging. There is considerable disappointment with the design of the prison.

I appreciate that time is of the essence. I know that things can be amended. It is not a huge task to look at various wings and restructure them. That is not a massive task in terms of what is coming down the line. We know the existing numbers in Cork. We hope fewer people will be sent to jail as a result of the changes being introduced in the fines (amendment) Bill. As the prison could be reconfigured, it is closer to our vision of what we want. We need to send a message by designing a prison that reflects our values and our vision for rehabilitation in 2013. I think we all know that what is on the table now is not up to standard. We need to sort it out.

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