Young convicts ‘denied basic rights’
The Inspector of Prisons Judge Michael Reilly said he witnessed inmates in St Patrick’s Institution crying in their cells, denied phone calls to their families, and suffering mental distress.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter has promised to close the institution, after Judge Reilly urged him to do so.
The inspector said the “very disturbing” incidents of breaches of prisoners’ fundamental rights demonstrated to him that a culture of abuse in the jail — that he highlighted last October — had not changed.
He confirmed a number of investigations were ongoing against prison officers.
He said the Irish Prison Service (IPS) could no lon-ger guarantee the “safe and secure custody” of young offenders and demanded the prison be shut “forthwith”.
In a follow-up inspection of St Patrick’s during three weeks last March, Judge Reilly documented breaches of the rights of prisoners:
* Prisoner A was in a cold and filthy cell, with a broken toilet that was “full of old excrement”, with a “filthy” sink with no water in the taps and refused permission to ring family;
* Prisoner B was in a cold and dirty cell, crying in his bed, with a broken toilet “filled with excrement”. He too was refused permission to phone his father;
* Prisoner C was “shaking from the cold” in a “filthy” cell, which had a broken toilet filled with excrement and a filthy sink with no water. He also was not allowed to telephone his family. He had a psychiatric illness but had not received his medication.
Judge Reilly said: “The name St Patrick’s should be consigned to history.”
He called for the May 2014 deadline for the transfer of 17-year-old inmates to the Oberstown Detention Centre to be brought forward. Pending that, they should be housed in a dedicated unit with separate facilities, including health care workers and “specially selected” prison officers.
He said 18-20-year-olds should be on a separate wing of a general prison, but could participate in education and training with other inmates.
IPS director general Michael Donnellan said they would comply with this and would transfer inmates to separate units in Wheatfield Prison within six months.
There are 119 inmates in St Patrick’s: 102 aged 18-20 and 17 aged 17.
The Irish Examiner is told that 12 of the 17 will move to Wheatfield, but that five inmates, who are on remand, will remain as they are remanded to that specific jail by the courts.
They are expected to be the first of the 17-year-olds to move to Oberstown.
Mr Donnellan blamed a “rigid, inflexible culture” and the persistent behaviour of a “small cohort” of officers for the closure of St Patrick’s.
He said a number of investigations were ongoing against officers.
A spokesman for the IPS later said staff at St Patrick’s would not be moving “wholesale” to Wheatfield and that officers would be “selected” to work there.
He said 90 historical complaints against prison officers in St Patrick’s had been re-examined, eight of which were deemed to warrant a fresh investigation, which is ongoing.
