McDowell announces Kinlen as first statutory Inspector of Prisons

OUTSPOKEN Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen is to be the country’s first statutory Inspector of Prisons.

For a number of years he has publicly lashed Justice Minister Michael McDowell and officials over prison policy and in his fourth prisons report last August, he went so far as to term the attitude of Mr McDowell and his officials “fascist”.

He criticised conditions at a number of prisons and said the State was denying prisoners their human rights and he characterised St Patrick’s institution for young offenders as no more than “a training ground for criminality”.

Calling for its closure, the judge said it was a “finishing school for bullying and developing criminal skills”.

Mr McDowell’s decision to put the inspectorate on a legal footing followed a bitter row last year with Mr Justice Kinlen over the minister’s attempt to set up the new office under the prison rules. At the time Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen slammed the minister’s behaviour. He said it was totally inappropriate as it would not make his office independent of the Government.

The judge has frequently put the spotlight on overcrowding in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison — where prisoner Garry Douche was killed a year ago.

A commission is being set up to look into the death, the minister told the Dáil recently.

When he was a High Court judge, Mr Justice Kinlen said he was shocked at the lack of support provided by the probation services to prisoners who may wish to rehabilitate.

At the Central Criminal Court in December 2000, he said prisoners were being moved from one prison to another and from one probation officer to another.

Announcing Mr Justice Kinlen’s appointment, the minister thanked him for his “tireless work and dedication” in the non-statutory position over the last five years.

Mr McDowell said the Prisons Act, parts of which he has activated from today, was “a significant step forward in the modernisation of our prison service”.

He said the act allowed for the closure of Mountjoy.

A modern, state of the art prison at the Thornton site, in north county Dublin, would “be able to provide the necessary facilities that will give prisoners an opportunity to rebuild their lives and return to society with a new set of skills”.