Plan to build mental hospital next to prison under fire

MENTAL health groups yesterday expressed concern at reports that the Central Mental Hospital is to be relocated to the same site as the replacement complex for Mountjoy Prison.

The Government plans to sell off the existing sites for the forensic psychiatric hospital in Dundrum and the Mountjoy complex and build their replacements on a 100-acre greenfield site on the outskirts of Dublin.

But the plan has been criticised by both Schizophrenia Ireland (SI) and the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT).

“We are delighted the Government has finally decided to do something about the site at Dundrum and set up a greenfield site,” said SI director John Saunders. “It has been known for quite a long time that it is in an appalling state in terms of sanitation and its capacity to provide a forensic service. However, we are not encouraged that the Government seem to want to put it on the same site as the prison to replace Mountjoy.”

Mr Saunders added: “I’m against it primarily because it sends out a very clear message or image that people with forensic psychiatric needs, who essentially are acquitted through the courts and sometimes don’t go through the courts but are sent there for treatment, are in the same capacity or status as people who have broken the law and who are committed to prison.”

Mr Saunders warned that while patients in the Central Mental Hospital will enjoy a much better physical environment, they will now be closely associated with the prison system.

“They already have the stigma of being deemed to be mentally ill.

“They will have a further stigma of being part of the prison system. People will respond negatively to that and relatives will as well.”

He also said that as the site in Dundrum is publicly valued at e70 million and that some of this money will go towards the prison site, with a loss of revenue to forensic psychiatry.

Mr Saunders added that SI would prefer to see a series of small forensic centres being built across the country, rather than one central institution.

Des Kavanagh of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) said there was a dangerous correlation placing the two institutions beside each other.

“It wouldn’t be our preference to have the CMH sited near a prison.

“The CMH could become more closely associated with prison than health. That doesn’t help patients getting resettled down the country, when their illness has abated.”

But he said the new hospital would be a “significant improvement” on the current CMH and would provide an accessible resource to the prison population.

He said the PNA would prefer to see three regional units being built as opposed to one central unit.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) strongly criticised Justice Minister Micheal McDowell for his plans to build “super prisons” to replace Mountjoy and Cork jail.

The campaigning body said that the Minister’s plans to increase prison spaces by 25% was an “unnecessary and wasteful ego-driven project”.