Superprison plans hit by economic climate
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern revealed that plans to sign the contract for the north Dublin prison complex had been put back due to the worsening financial climate.
Thornton Hall — which has the capacity to house a possible 2,200 inmates — was due to come on stream in 2011.
It is the central plank of the Government’s strategy to combat overcrowding in the country’s jails.
“The aim for Thornton Hall was to sign the contract in early 2009, but in light of the current economic difficulties, the current bidder, and I anticipate all the other bidders, are experiencing problems with the credit crunch,” Mr Ahern said.
“I understand that negotiations are ongoing and efforts will be resumed in the new year to obtain the finance required at a reasonable rate.”
He said as it was a public private partnership, the taxpayer “would not pay a cent” until the project was complete.
It emerged last weekend that about €10 million had been spent so far on preliminary work on the 150-acre site, including archeological work, landscaping and security. A further €30m was spent on acquiring the land in 2005.
Thornton Hall was originally intended for up to 1,400 inmates, but subsequent plans published by the Department of Justice said this could be increased to a possible 2,200 by doubling up the single cells.
Mr Ahern also published figures that showed there were 3,653 people in prison on December 15 last, excluding those on temporary release. This compares with 3,373 inmates on the same date in 2007, a rise of 8%.
This is higher than the number of beds in the prison service (3,611) and about 12% above the intended design capacity of the prisons.
Mr Ahern said the consistent rise in prisoner numbers had been “particularly apparent” in the past 12 months, with an extra 280 inmates in custody. He said this was partly due to the success of the gardaí in prosecuting criminals as well as additional court sittings. He said prisons were obliged to take in people committed by the courts.
The figures show overcrowding is particularly acute in prisons like Mountjoy, Cork and Limerick.
Mr Ahern said in the short term they were dealing with overcrowding by creating 400 spaces by the summer. This includes a new remand block in Castlerea Prison, with 100 spaces, a new block in Portlaoise accommodating 100 prisoners and a new block in Wheatfield in Dublin housing 150 inmates.
John Clinton, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said the overcrowding problem was worse than what the Government said. He accused them of “camouflaging” the figures by using bed capacity, rather than design capacity. “Wheatfield is designed for 320. They will tell you it has a bed capacity of 390. They’ve done that by doubling up single cells.”
He said the real design capacity of Mountjoy was far less than 500. He said overcrowding provided “the perfect atmosphere for threats and actual violence”.
The Mountjoy Prison Visiting Committee 2007 report, published last summer, said there were 570 inmates in the prison in December 2007.
It said this level of overcrowding was “unacceptable” and contributed to a “tense atmosphere” within the prison.
Cork, a prison originally designed for 150 inmates, is housing 284 prisoners — close to two inmates for every single cell. Like Mountjoy, many are forced to slop out in chamber pots in front of each other.
In his first report as the new inspector of prisons, published last October, Judge Michael Reilly said he had already come across cases of “excessive overcrowding” and said he was focusing on this issue.
Mr Clinton said the additional 400 spaces might help certain institutions experiencing overcrowding, but would not solve the overall problem. He said this was evidenced by the fact that the Government felt the system needed a minimum of 1,400 spaces at Thornton.
Thornton will replace the four institutions at the Mountjoy complex: Mountjoy, Dochas, St Patrick’s Institution and the Training Unit. Thornton would provide about 450 extra spaces on top of the 950 beds available at the four jails.
Mr Ahern said the 8% rise in custody numbers had resulted in a 15% increase in those on temporary release. But he said the numbers on temporary release — about 10% of the total — compared favourably with the mid-1990s, when it was about 20%.
Mr Clinton said the main remedy for overcrowding was to see who was suitable for temporary release.
“It is safe to say any rise in temporary release is related to prison spaces,” he said.
