Prisoner levels soar despite repeated warnings

LAST summer, the Prison Service issued a stark warning that Mountjoy was liable to erupt.

An internal audit of the jail, carried out by the Prison Service’s Regimes Directorate, said Mountjoy was like a “pressure cooker.”

This was based on an inmate population which then stood at 540.

The Care and Custody Audit said the prison population had to be kept at “less than the present maximum”.

It said: “The major factor affecting Mountjoy is the level of the population and the lack of facilities to provide constructive activities for more than a fraction of the prisoners.

“The prisoner population must be controlled. Failure to do this feeds into the ‘pressure cooker’ mentality and culture mitigating against positive efforts to improve the regime.”

According to the Prison Service the bed capacity in Mountjoy stands, as it did at the time of the audit, at 540.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) maintain the prison is actually designed for between 450- 480. The Mountjoy branch of the POA has claimed that the design capacity of the prison — based on the number of cells — is actually 351.

Independent watchdogs have constantly highlighted the level of overcrowding in Mountjoy.

The Mountjoy Prison Visiting Committee 2007 report, published last summer, said the level of overcrowding at the prison, which then stood at 570, was “unacceptable” and that it contributed to a “tense atmosphere”.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) report, published at the end of 2007, was heavily critical of the overcrowding and poor toilet facilities in the A and B wings.

“The conditions were cramped with two prisoners being accommodated in cells of 8sq m. The pervasive smell from the use of chamber pots in each other’s presence compounded these deficiencies,” the report said.

The Care and Custody Audit said action had to be taken in Mountjoy to minimise slopping out — the practice of using chamber pots in front of other inmates. It pointed out that the European Court “abhorred” the practice.

It said the threat to prisoner safety was “manifest” in the jail and that little was being done to address offending behaviour.

Last July, a serious riot broke out in Mountjoy involving 77 inmates. A 56-strong prison riot team had to be deployed to quell the disturbance, during which a prison officer had his teeth and nose smashed in by an inmate.

The POA said overcrowding was a major contributory factor for the riot.

The Prison Service believed the riot was linked to its successes in reducing the amount of drugs getting in due to new security measures.

Despite the internal report, and the riot, the Mountjoy has grown, reaching 628 last December. According to the POA, it reached 660 on February 18, last.

The POA said they had a meeting with the Prison Service director of operations on that date and claim they were given a commitment that numbers would be reduced. Yesterday, it stood at 643.

“Overcrowding has everyone on tender-hooks in the prison,” said a long- serving officer in the jail.

“We have doubling up of cells, inmates are sleeping on floor and going to the toilet in front of each other and there is also boredom.”

The Prison Service said they have to accommodate everyone sent to jail by the courts and that Mountjoy is the main committal prison.

A spokesman said there had been a “consistent increase” in total prison numbers in recent years.

“In the past year there has been a dramatic rise in the numbers in custody,” he said. He said the number in custody now stood at 3,811, up 4% since December.

With the pressure continuing he said a further 200 spaces would be created shortly by doubling up more cells. But the main solution to overcrowding — Thornton Hall — has been delayed until at least 2013.