Visiting families ‘could be targeted’ on bus to prison

FAMILIES using the planned bus service to the new “super prison” in north Dublin for visits will be pressurised to carry drugs and targeted by other families to “settle scores” inside prison, it was claimed yesterday.

Fr Tony O’Riordan of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice said the current anonymity families had visiting women in the Dochas Centre in Dublin’s north inner city would end by moving the prison to Thornton Hall in north Dublin. The Prison Service is planning to set up a bus service to take people to the remote facility, which is up to an hour’s drive from the city and not on any existing public transport route.

“We think the dedicated bus service is going to be a real disaster waiting to happen,” said Fr O’Riordan. “There’s anonymity at the moment. There’s shame in having people in prison. People get a taxi to the Mater [hospital, across the road from Dochas Centre]. That will be completely blown out of the water with a dedicated bus. Apart from the stigma, there is a small number who will exert pressure on families to carry in contraband and others may settle scores by targeting families on the bus.”