Inmates' insight: ‘No such thing as a drug-free prison’

Tom leans forward on the table and is eager to talk. Fellow inmate Frank leans to the side and holds a hand to his head.

“Cork is like going back in time,” says Tom. “Stone Age conditions. You can’t keep painting over the conditions and give people piss pots.”

Frank agrees. “If it’s a bad night of rain, you are mopping the floors,” he says. “You can see it running down the walls.”

Frank says that if there is a lady prison officer on he doesn’t like having to empty the contents of the slop out bucket, saying it is “quite demeaning”.

Tom says that two weeks previously, an inmate with psychiatric problems threatened to throw a pot over a female officer. Frank says that when someone rinses out their pot with hot water the steam rises and stinks out the place.

A Dub by his accent, Tom has, as he puts it himself, “done a tour of prisons”. He is serving a 12-year sentence for armed robbery and has 19 months left to do. “I used to be a little bastard. I’m here [Cork] three years and had no option but to put the head down.”

He’s 40 now and started his life in prison in St Patrick’s Institution in 1989, aged 16.

“It’s been relentless since. I have 21 to 22 convictions, a lot fairly serious. I was out in Dec 2004, back in in 2007.”

While Tom appears focused and sharp, Frank comes across as quiet, more troubled.

When asked what he’s in for, the reason becomes clear: “I’m doing life here,” he says in a low voice, holding his head.

Asked do the conditions bother him, he says: “What I’m in for is bothering me, that’s in the head the whole time. I’ve all the time to think about it. Outside would be the same.”

When they are asked why should people on the outside care about their conditions in prison, Frank says: “Would you say the same if it was your own brother or father?”

Tom adds: “There are a lot of people in here for unpaid fines. Also a lot of committals in and out are coming from Simon hostel, or there’s alcohol or psychiatric issues.”

Frank says there are other problems too, like bullying and intimidation in the prison.

Regarding drugs, Tom says: “There is no such thing as a drug-free prison, but Cork is the best of a bad bunch. It’s as close as you are going to get to drug free.”

Both are now involved in a listener programme, set up by the Samaritans. “People are locked up 17 hours a day,” says Tom. “Anything can happen outside, even if it’s small, and can be a big thing if you have 17 hours a day to think about it.”

Will he end up back in prison, when he gets out? “There’s people graduating from college who can’t get jobs,” says Tom.

“What fucking chance have I? It’s not rocket science. But I am going to try my best and not come back in. I have a 21-year-old son and a grandson.”