McDowell: camp is prime site for jail

AN 80-acre site at Lynch Camp in Kilworth, Co Cork, is the preferred site for a super-prison, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said yesterday.

Mr McDowell and senior officials from several government departments toured part of the army camp yesterday. The minister said he viewed the site in Kilworth as being a far better location than Spike Island, which was first designated as the spot for a prison likely to hold 400 inmates.

The minister said Cork prison was overcrowded and was not up to the modern standards required. He added that it was difficult keeping it drug-free because it was in the city and this problem could be curtailed within a jail located in a rural area.