Juvenile centre a ‘warehouse for crime’
Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen rejected the use of holding cells in Mountjoy Jail, saying they should “never be used” for eating or sleeping.
His visit to Mountjoy took place before the murder of Gary Douch, who was killed in an overcrowded holding cell in the prison earlier this month.
In another typically- damning annual report on the state of the prison system, Mr Justice Kinlen:
* Openly defies Mr McDowell’s proposed legislation for setting up his office on a statutory basis, on the grounds that the position would not be independent.
* Claims the minister and the government may be denying the human rights of prisoners and breaching the Good Friday agreement.
* Accuses the minister and his department of adopting a ‘them and us’ attitude towards external inspection.
* Slams the minister for editing his annual reports and delaying their publication.
Visiting St Patrick’s in Dublin last March, Mr Justice Kinlen said only 31 of the 198 inmates, aged between 16 and 21, were attending school and that no workshops were in operation.
“It was clear that the minister was merely using St Patrick’s as a warehouse for young people who learnt the finer points of criminality in St Patrick’s which almost certainly guaranteed their progression into the ‘university’ of Mountjoy. It was a shameful exercise,” said the inspector.
He added: “No wonder the ‘Dubs’ and ‘Culchies’ attack each other, there is not much else to do in this home of boredom.”
Mr Justice Kinlen said it was “appalling” that St Patrick’s was the only juvenile detention centre for the entire country and repeated his call that it be shut down immediately.
In his annual report for 2004-2005, he calls on the minister to put rehabilitation on top of his list of priorities. “If he does not do it, one hopes that his successor will do so.”
The inspector said the holding cells in Mountjoy were never designed for either sleeping or eating.
He said records showed that there were sometimes 30 inmates in these baserooms, which had an average of around three people.
He said fire inspectors accompanied him to Mountjoy and documented numerous safety deficiencies.
Mr Kinlen describes as “outrageous” the failure of Mr McDowell to set up his office on a statutory basis.
He said he would not comply with an attempt by the minister to set up his office under new Prison Rules.
“It is quite clear that the minister, the Government and the Department had no intention of establishing a statutory inspectorate.”
He said the minister and the government could be breaching human rights and the Belfast agreement.
The inspector called on the Government to make the probation service a statutory agency which could push rehabilitation.
He called on prisoners with psychiatric illnesses to be placed under the care of the Department of Health and for people awaiting deportation not to be held in prisons.
He also recommended that at least one prison be privatised.
His annual report and a report on Cloverhill Prison, along with 13 other reports of prison visiting committees were published at yesterday by the Department of Justice.
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