Government ‘ignoring’ concerns over super-prison

THE Government is clinging to plans for a super-prison at Thornton Hall while ignoring reservations about its effectiveness, a conference on criminology has been told.

Director of University College Dublin’s Institute of criminology, Professor Ian O’Donnell, said the plan to build a prison for between 1,400 and 2,200 inmates was being taken in the interest of speed rather than appropriateness.

Prof O’Donnell was the keynote speaker at the fourth Irish Criminology Conference which is taking place at Dublin Institute of Technology. He said the decision to close Mountjoy and develop a super-prison was being taken in the absence of informed debate.

Prof O’Donnell asked the Government to consider the work of American writer Robert Merton before pressing ahead.

“Consider the Thornton Hall penal colony project in light of Merton’s ideas. This is a policy decision that seems designed to provide an immediate response to a political desire to do something tangible about crime. It was taken in the absence of an informed debate about the size and shape of prison population, and in the face of a surprising stability in the level of prisoners.”

Prof O’Donnell said people should first establish if the availability of more prison spaces is likely to lead to an increase in the prison population without bringing better outcomes for society. The project highlighted the need to invest in research to find out the best ways of reforming criminals.

“[Thornton Hall] is being clung to despite substantial reservations about the scale, location and composition of the proposed cluster of institutions. Here we see at play the factors of immediacy of interest, underdeveloped knowledge and error. The prospect of more prison places coming on stream may lead to custody being used more frequently or for longer, rather than resulting in a reduction in overcrowding.”