Spike Island to receive a new prison complex amid fears of a return to ‘revolving door policy’
The announcement came two years after a complex on the same site shut its doors.
Money saved through reduced overtime payments to prison officers will be used to help provide more than 1,500 new prison spaces, including the 450-place prison at Spike Island.
The complex will augment the existing Fort Mitchel detention centre on the island, as well as replacing overcrowded Cork Prison, Mr McDowell said.
He said Spike would house a significant prison complex, with separate sections for male and female prisoners and young offenders.
Mr McDowell, speaking at the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) conference in Killarney, said the facility would have enough prison capacity for the southern region.
He said it would be a state-of-the-art detention centre.
“The old Cork Prison continues to suffer from overcrowding and extending it on its existing site is not possible.”
It is understood much of the planning for the development has been completed. The minister said a detailed brief has been provided to the Office of Public Works (OPW) and preliminary draft designs of the new prison complex have been prepared. The OPW will also look into building a bridge to the island.
Work on a 1,000-place prison, which will replace Mountjoy, is due to start at Thornton, in north Co Dublin, next year.
Additional facilities are also due to be provided in other prisons, including Wheatfield, Shelton Abbey, Loughan House and Limerick, and a new, 140-prisoner block in Portlaoise.
POA president Gabriel Keaveny said the minister must first secure money to build a new prison on Spike Island, adding that prison officers and their families had been “dumped” out of Spike without any justification when the prison closed there two years ago.
At the conference, Mr McDowell stoutly rejected a claim by Mr Keaveny that the revolving door was “alive and well” in prisons because of overcrowding.
“The revolving door is not alive and well,” rebutted Mr McDowell. He said it was now firmly shut.
“Less than 3% of prisoners are out on temporary release and all of those out are part of a structured programme. During the Rainbow Coalition, 15% to 20% of prisoners had to be let out on temporary release.”
But Mr Keaveny, in his presidential address to delegates, accused the Government of doing nothing to deal with the shortage of prison spaces.
“Some prisons are bursting at the seams and overcrowding is back on the agenda again for one reason and one reason only — this minister has closed down three prisons since he came into office and, as a direct result, prison spaces have been reduced by 300,” he said.
Mr Keaveny said areas such as A Division in Mountjoy, which had been previously deemed unsuitable and had been closed, had to be reopened because of the accommodation crisis.
“Doubling up is now a common feature in many of our prisons as a way of easing overcrowding and the return of the revolving door syndrome is inevitable,” he said.
He said that, at the same time, millions of euro were being wasted by the Government, adding that a e10m special school at St Patrick’s Institution in Dublin remained empty.
“The minister and his officials have authorised the building of an all-weather football pitch at one of our prisons — a facility so grand that even the FAI must be envious — all at a cost of €1m. Should this have been a priority at this time?” he asked.
Prison officers were also critical of plans by Mr McDowell to have more restrictions on granting bail, arguing there would not be enough detention places for people that were refused bail.
