St Patrick’s report - Fast-track review of penal policies

Graphic pictures of a culture of bullying, fear and intimidation at St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders as portrayed in yesterday’s stark report would not be out of place in the pages of a Dickens novel.

Whatever one might feel about the unacceptable behaviour of young offenders, including some who are still legally children, there is no denying that they have human rights too, rights not just ignored but trampled under foot in St Patrick’s.

An integral part of the old Mountjoy jail complex, the facility in the heart of Dublin is an appalling place and due for demolition for years. By no stretch of the imagination can it be described as a holiday resort.

Making a penal situation utterly intolerable for some of the 231 prisoners aged 16 to 21, a number of prison officers deliberately created an atmosphere of fear which has been condemned in a report by the Inspector of Prisons Judge Michael Reilly that pulls no punches.

For some time now, alarm bells have been ringing about conditions at St Patrick’s but attempts to turn the spotlight on the shameful regime that prevailed there were treated by officialdom with contempt. In the wake of the damning Reilly report, scathing evidence of the dismissive attitude towards the treatment of young inmates was highlighted yesterday by Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan.

Saying she had been “patronised” and made fun of when she reported on conditions there before a UN human rights committee last year, she claimed that “people at a very senior level” within the Department of Justice told the committee that her allegation about what was going on at St Patrick’s “was about children’s perception”.

As she put it “that really dampened down the notion that any of these kinds of things were happening or were real because of the people that were reporting it. So, effectively, if you have young people who have been in contact with the law, we are not expected to believe what they are saying”.

Underpinning her complaints, Judge Reilly found that child prisoners were being forcibly moved to isolation cells using head and arm-lock control and other methods of restraint. Some were forcibly stripped and at times, he said, the clothes were cut off their backs by staff using knives and leaving injuries.

According to the judge this was “degrading and a form of punishment, intimidation and abuse”. He added that it involved some young inmates who had themselves been sexually or physically abused as children.

The inescapable conclusion of his report is that “no proper management structure” existed at St Patrick’s where the drug problem is worse than in any other prison in the system and gangs are endemic.

Not before time, the culture of fear and intimidation has been “brought to an end” according to Justice Minister Alan Shatter. He received the report over three months ago and since then a “substantial programme of reform” has been put in place at St Patrick’s and “the vast majority” of this had been implemented, he said.

Clearly, much more needs to be done. Given the disgraceful attitude exposed within the corridors of power, the root-and-branch review of penal policies ordered last year by the minister — ranging from crime prevention to inconsistency of sentencing and alternatives to custody — must be fast-tracked.