No escaping the truth about prisons

Fiachra O’Cionnaith examines the Prison Chaplains’ annual report

THE vast majority of people sent to Irish jails only become violent or involved in drug addiction after they enter the prison system.

The latest Prison Chaplains’ annual report has confirmed that a culture of serious overcrowding, failure to rehabilitate convicts and an out-of-control drugs crisis is crippling the prison service and condemning inmates guilty of even minor offences to a life of crime.