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.