Chaplains call for community prisons

PRISON chaplains have called for the creation of smaller, community-based prisons throughout the country to allow a more “humane” regime for prisoners and their families.

In their annual report, chaplains also asked for the new super-prison at Thornton Hall to be postponed to allow for a full debate.

They also say locking up small-time drug dealers, drug addicts and drug mules, as opposed to the big dealers, is not the solution. “If it were, our problems would have been solved by this.”

A rethink of the prison system is “vital” for future generations, “not just of prisoners but of society at large”, say the chaplains in a submission to the Department of Justice.

They say the current punitive model of justice is “failed” and should be replaced by a restorative justice model.

St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders is “a monument to the failure of the state” to address issues “affecting the youngest and most vulnerable members of our communities”.

They want smaller prisons situated in local communities to facilitate a more humane approach.

National head chaplain Sr Imelda Wickham said a fundamental issue “is whether we as a society are willing to cut back on education, on health and social welfare but unwilling to cut back on prison expansion”.