Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I begin by quoting Mr. Justice Dermot Kinlen's letter to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which comprises the introduction to the second annual report of the Inspector of Prisons: "I am quite certain that many senior officials will not like much of my proposed Bill [to make his position statutory] as it will offend their basic mantra about power, secrecy, control and security." For many people, this sums up the fundamental problem associated with running a prison system in Ireland, that is, the culture of power, secrecy, control and security which the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and successive Ministers from that Department have insistently defended.

The fundamental problem is that the Department, including the Minister, is affronted by the fact that somebody says it is not doing its job properly. It is extremely uncomfortable about the fact that somebody is allowed to consider what it is doing, cast a dispassionate eye over it and come to conclusions which, to the rest of us who read the report, are so obvious as to be similar to a poke in the eye to remind one of the problem.

Not all the recommendations in the report of the Inspector of Prisons require considerable effort to implement. When the inspector refers to the need to replace tiles in bathrooms or the fact that bedrooms look like they have not been painted in years, he is not referring to the need to make great efforts but to a failure of will. The report quotes the British Inspectorate of Prisons, which makes the very valid point that the traditional response of blaming the poor foot soldiers for everything is not the issue. It is a management issue concerning senior management in the Prison Service and is ultimately determined by the values that motivate Ministers with responsibility for justice. The humane rhetoric bandied about, particularly when there is a moment of embarrassment from the European committee on the prevention of torture, does not get away from the fact that we require prisoners to live in conditions which the Inspector of Prisons, two years in a row, has described as being nothing short of abysmal.

He has identified the fundamental problem as being the culture in which the prisons are run. Manifestly, a so-called independent Prison Service is still firmly under the thumb of a Department, which, as he said, still operates with the basic mantra of power, secrecy, control and security. That really is what it is about. When one reflects on that culture one can understand why Shanganagh Castle would be closed. Open prisons are not exactly part of the culture of power, secrecy, control and security. They are the antithesis of that. If there were empirical evidence to suggest that this culture was necessary to achieve some worthy objective, we could all be persuaded. However, the fundamental fact about prisons is that apart from protecting people from others who are dangerous, by keeping them locked up, they do not work. They do not deter or rehabilitate people. They usually end up with people being more mentally and psychiatrically ill when they leave than when they arrived. More people leave prison with drug problems than had them when they arrived. Prisons do not work; they are utterly hopeless.

One could write a profound PhD thesis about the way in which societies — Ireland among them, although not particularly worse than anywhere else — believe in prisons and need them. Governments of all hues demand prisons when everybody can prove that they do not work. Increasingly I believe that the purpose of prisons is not to deter those who might end up there, but rather those who would never end up there. The purpose of prisons is actually to put manners on the middle classes by frightening them with the prospect of what might happen to them if they do not behave. The people who are most frightened of prison never end up there because of the combination of advantage in life, education etc.

These two reports contain a wonderfully eloquent statement of the frustration of trying to deal with a Department which cannot adjust itself. Every time I talk about issues like this I am conscious of the reminiscences of my friend in the Labour Party, former Deputy Eithne FitzGerald, and her struggles with a particular Department, using the Freedom of Information Act. The Department resisted and resisted, just as it did in many other matters. Until some Minister gets to the stage of saying, "Let us start all this again", recognising that many of the things the Prison Service does are unnecessary, resulting in unwanted expenditure, wasted money, poor services and at the end of it all the public is not more secure, nothing will change. Prisons serve one purpose only, to keep people who are dangerous off the streets. If we accepted that, we could look at how many prison places are needed, which is probably a fraction of the number we have. We could use the resources saved to deal creatively with issues such as illiteracy and all of those matters.

It is extraordinary how little has been done. If Mr. Justice Kinlen keeps writing reports like this, his chances of getting a permanent contract with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform will not only diminish, but will move into negative territory.