Conditions in prisons are being covered up, says Kinlen

THE Inspector of Prisons has accused the Department of Justice of trying to cover up unacceptable conditions in jails.

Retired High Court judge, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, said: “What we need in this day and age is openness, transparency, accountancy and efficiency. The department want to attack the messenger rather than deal with his message.”

The department, he said, was obsessed with power, control and secrecy.

He accused it of trying to cover up conditions in prisons with a new rule which means the inspector can only visit a jail at hours which are deemed reasonable.

On one late-night visit to Mountjoy, he found prisoners being held in appalling conditions, some sleeping in their own vomit.

“What is a reasonable hour?” Mr Justice Kinlen asked. “I found prisoners in these conditions at 10pm.”

He stressed he was prepared to risk his own personal finances if exposing jail conditions led to him being sued in the courts.

By contrast, the department had edited out sections of previous annual reports by Mr Justice Kinlen.

“They say they did this because the minister does not want to be sued. I don’t mind being sued, and if I am sued, I have only my own assets.

“But for the sake of the independence of my office, I am prepared to risk my own assets, while the Minister for Justice has the assets of the Minister for Finance to fall back on.”

He again called on the Government to make the prisons inspector a statutory position which would enable him to report directly to the Oireachtas and not the Minister for Justice.

He said he would be repeating this demand in his fourth annual report which he is working on.

“I won’t throw in the towel.

“I feel this is a useful job which should have been done years ago and I do not want to be restricted by sanctions of the minister and his department, but tell people what is going on in our prisons.”

He said there were rotten apples among prison officers as in every walk of life.

“But,” he said, “the bulk of them are first-class and many of them have developed a sense of vocation in their work.”

Neither the department nor the Prison Officers’ Association would comment on the matter.