Jail closures ‘leave 500 prisoners at large’

INCREASING numbers of prisoners are being given temporary release as a result of the closure of two jails, it was claimed yesterday.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) estimates 500 to 600 prisoners are at large because of a worsening overcrowding problem.

Deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy said: “There are prisoners loose on our streets that should be in prison. The number on temporary release (TR) is frighteningly high.”

He claimed the rise in TR was due to the closure of Fort Mitchell (Spike Island) in Cork and the Curragh in Kildare.

Spike Island and the Curragh were “mothballed” in 2004 after prison officers voted against a deal to end overtime. After subsequent votes this year, Justice Minister Michael McDowell told staff the institutions would be “permanently closed” if they rejected the offer again.

It was finally accepted earlier this month. However, it was confirmed yesterday that the two institutions will remain closed.

Mr Dennehy said: “It beggars belief that a minister who talks so much about law and order and public safety was so short sighted to do this.”

He said Spike Island, which housed mainly young offenders, and the Curragh, which housed clerical sex abusers, carried out valuable rehabilitation work. Clerical abusers were now in Midlands Prison which has no sex offender treatment programme.

Mr Dennehy said overcrowding was so bad that the “A” division in Mountjoy Jail had been reopened.

“That was closed some years ago because the official side felt it was unfit for human habitation and the only reason it was reopened was because they closed Spike and Curragh.”

Prisons inspector Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen confirmed in a report this year the division was reopened as a result of overcrowding. He described base cells there as “inhumane and degrading”.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said the PAO figure was misleading.

“It gives the impression that 500 guys are out there storming the country, when it is mostly technical breaches of temporary release regulations.”

He said in many cases the prisoners had completed their sentence but failed to sign on on their last day of temporary release.

He said the number on TR had actually decreased.