Prison service concerned over detention of children in jails

PRISON authorities are concerned at the increasing use of jails to detain children — some of whom have not even committed any crimes.

The Prisons Authority Interim Board has complained to Justice Minister Michael McDowell about the growing problem.

“The board expressed its concern about the detention of young boys, including non-offenders, in prison on foot of court orders,” said Brian McCarthy, chairman of the board.

“The prison system was not designed to cater for the needs of such children and could do little more than provide holding accommodation for them, without the benefit of a therapeutic regime,” he added.

In its Prison Service Annual Report, 2001, the authority said the committal of children to jail “appeared to be a growing trend” and was causing concern among staff.

The report said that 11 minor offenders, under the age of 16, were committed to St Patrick’s Institution for 16 to 21-year-olds on foot of High Court orders.

It said that under the Children Act, 2001, separate detention centres had to be set up for juvenile offenders and that work was progressing on building two such units: one in Cork and one in Dublin.

The board also expressed concern at the “growing number” of mentally ill people being committed to prisons.

The report noted that the number of people serving sentences in prison had jumped by over 40% in the previous five years.

Some 9,539 people were committed to prisons in 2001. Of these:

90% were male.

Almost 20% were under 21.

Almost 44% were from Dublin, 8% from Cork and almost 5% from Limerick.

The report also noted a significant increase in the proportion of people from ethnic minorities committed to prison. In 2001, 18% of convicts were non-nationals, fcoming from 95 countries. Of the 1,733 non-nationals, 37% were Eastern European, 26% were African, and 16% were EU nationals.

The report said this set new challenges for the service in such areas as translation, education and the promotion of racial equality. The problem of racism was highlighted in another Prison Service report, published last week. It stated 80% of prisoners said they had witnessed non-national inmates being treated unfairly.