Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I compliment Senator Henry on raising this matter repeatedly on the Order of Business.

On Monday, I met Mr. Justice Kinlen to get an update on the recommendations he made in the report on St. Patrick's Institution and in his first two reports on prisons. Mr. Justice Kinlen is a bête noire for the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. If the Department thought he would agree with everything it wanted, it was mistaken. He has had to send people to prison so no one understands the consequences of doing that better than him. In one of his reports he states that judges should justify the use of prisons because they are so expensive and seldom improve the prisoner.

The annual report of the visiting committee of St. Patrick's Institution for December 2004 found there were 182 inmates aged between 16 and 21, with 59 aged between 16 and 17. The idea of putting young people under 18 years of age into prison is savage. Generally, only the poor end up in prison. I will present a report on child care on Tuesday 28 June which will state that every child born in the State should have an equal opportunity and that no child born into a poor family should be deprived of developing his or her potential. The visiting committee of St. Patrick's Institution stated that basic literacy continues to be a problem at St. Patrick's and that a substantial number of inmates are unable to read or write. Sadly, their language skills are so poor that their ability to construct oral sentences is very limited.

We condemn people to isolation in prison cells, instead of using the prison system to educate them and help them to make up the ground they lost in the past. By rehabilitating them, we could enable them to get a job instead of offending again. When we look back at this in 30 years, we will consider what we are doing to be savage.

Mr. Justice Kinlen notes that the chaplain in St. Patrick's Institution, who regards himself as independent, stated he was concerned and distressed about the situation in the institution. He said it is run as a prison when it should be a rehabilitative centre to help people to find themselves so they can cope when they return to society. Locking inmates in their cells for 17 hours a day should be discouraged and activities should be encouraged to distract the inmates from crime.

When Mr. Justice Kinlen publishes his third report this week which we should study. It is a pity we did not have it in time for this debate. Vision is necessary. Politicians must change society, not act as dead-handed bureaucrats who interfere politically. We are here to change society.

I commend Mr. Justice Kinlen and thank him for the passion he has displayed as independent Inspector of Prisons since 2002. He asks that we, as legislators, ask the Minister to put his position on a statutory footing and make it independent. He also recommends that the probation service be independent, as it is in Northern Ireland. If we had real vision, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform would establish an independent authority for the Garda and an independent probation service that could work to rehabilitate young offenders.

In May 2002, Fr. Peter McVerry, SJ, accompanied the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment when it visited Ireland. He said many inmates interviewed by the delegation indicated they had reasonably constructive relations with most of the prison staff. In all three prisons the delegation visited, however, it heard complaints of verbal abuse. In Dublin it also heard complaints of physical ill treatment, kicking, slapping and rough treatment of prisoners by staff, frequently related to placements in padded cells, although that is now being dealt with.

The committee also noted with concern that there is no independent complaints board. Although we are not appointing a Garda ombudsman similar to the police ombudsman in the North, at least the three-person ombudsman committee will be independent of the Garda Síochána. There should be an independent complaints authority for those in prison so those investigating assaults on prisoners do not work in the prisons themselves.

I am glad Senator Henry tabled this motion. We should raise this issue again in the autumn and keep track of the third report. We must do everything we can to help those in prison and to protect their human rights so they can be rehabilitated into society.