Jesuits: Super-prison blueprint flawed

THE blueprint for the proposed super-prison at Thornton Hall in north county Dublin is critically flawed and does nothing to address the growing problem of violence behind bars, the director of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice said yesterday.

Fr Tony O’Riordan, SJ, called for the project to be re-evaluated. Since the Government purchased a 150-acre site at a cost of €30 million at Thornton Hall, as part of the plan to replace Mountjoy, the proposed facility, which will accommodate 1,200 convicts, has been plagued by controversy. The prison is destined to be on stream by 2010, but yesterday Fr O’Riordan, one of this country’s most respected experts on prison policy, said an ideal opportunity to address the subject of violence within jails has been overlooked in the plans.

Speaking on Prisoner Sunday, he suggested the proposal that male prisoners will be accommodated in two large buildings, each holding between 400 and 500 prisoners, will create the possibility that “threats of violence and intimidation will ‘infect’ and undermine the regime of the new prison thus adding to a host of issues which make the reconsideration of Thornton Hall an urgent necessity”.

In recent times, violence has emerged as one of the most serious problems facing the Irish prison system and is one of the most significant reasons why the development at Thornton Hall should be reconsidered.