Prisoners ballot for a better future

Last year the electoral amendment was passed giving prisoners the right to vote for the first time.

Dara Bradley visited Mountjoy Prison to ask inmates about casting their vote

JACK, aged 38, a heroin addict, has 58 previous convictions and is halfway through a two-year sentence in Mountjoy Prison for drug-related crime.

He never voted before because he “was too f**ked up on drugs on the outside”, but will be using his new franchise to support the Green Party. He doesn’t elaborate too much on why. He has no particular grá for Trevor Sargent nor is he overly concerned about the environment: “I’m not really politically minded, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Greens.”

Jack says heroin was his “downfall”.

“Drugs is a huge issue in here, sure there are more drugs in here than on the outside. I’m on the methadone, but the methadone programme in here’s a joke. There are blokes in here getting their methadone, but they’re on heroin as well. We do ‘urines’ every week, but it doesn’t matter a damn — nothing happens if you turn up positive.”

Jack is in a cell on his own, but he is one of 400 prisoners who still perform the practice of slopping out which he says is disgusting. His message to politicians is simple: “Get in here, have a look and turn it upside down. Knock the place down.”

Jack has been in and out of prison since 1988. He’s not optimistic about his future: “There’s no step-down support when I get out, no follow up programmes. I’m just a number in here and when I’ve done my time they’ll just throw me out the gates.”

When he’s not locked up in his cell, Jack is in the workshop where he’s taking an advanced level ECDL computer course. Despite this and Ireland’s prosperous economy, his job prospects once released are bleak:

“I’ve no hope of getting work — I’ve too many convictions. I mean, would you employ me?”

James, 32, from north inner city Dublin is serving the remainder of a 13-year sentence for armed robbery handed down by a court in England. Like Jack, he has never voted, but he and his family will be voting for Dublin North West TD Pat Carey, who he says was instrumental in securing his transfer from an English prison to Mountjoy: “He’s the only politician who helped me or my family out ever.”

Having served five years in an English jail, he believes that prison authorities there are more in tune with prisoners’ needs: “The English know what rehabilitation is all about, they know how to deal with us properly, they give you the opportunity to get on with your life when you get out.”

Safety within Mountjoy is another concern that would compel the inmates to vote. According to James, English prisons offer more security and there’s “less chance of getting stabbed in a prison over there”.

Just to prove how dangerous it is, Seán, 23, lifts up his Celtic soccer jersey and points to two ‘Scooby Doos’ or screwdriver stab wound scars on his chest.

“It’s all feuding gangs on the outside bringing in their feuds and settling old scores. Whatever you do on the outside’s going to catch up with you in here.”

Only 39 of the 480 prisoners eligible to vote in Mountjoy have registered to do so. They vote in their home constituencies, not in Dublin North Central, the prison location.