‘Serious child safety issues’ at women’s jail

HSE child safety experts have been drafted in by prison bosses to address “serious child protection issues” at Dóchas women’s prison.

The Prison Service has set up a child protection multi- disciplinary group at the Dublin jail in response to problems highlighted by Inspector of Prisons Judge Michael Reilly.

The inspector said the ability of female inmates to have contact with babies of women who are also serving time in the prison posed serious safety issues.

“There is no separate mother and baby unit. In the context of babies being in the prison, where there is free association between prisoners, this gives rise to serious protection issues,” said Judge Reilly.

Under prison rules, a child may stay with its mother until it reaches a year old.

Judge Reilly said when he visited the centre on July 10 last, there had been up to six babies staying with their mothers there.

He said the mothers and babies did not occupy a separate part of the prison, and instead intermingled with the rest of the population.

In a report on the prison, the inspector said the general environment was poor, due largely to overcrowding and drugs.

“The present position is that there is a fraught atmosphere, there is conflict between prisoners, there is not the same interaction between staff and prisoners and the services to prisoners are stretched beyond capacity.

“The reasons for this are, inter alia [among other things], the increase in prisoner population, the reduction in staff, the diminution of services, the ever increasing availability of drugs and the tension between prisoners.”

A Prison Service spokes- man told the Irish Examiner: “There is a considerable level of support available for mothers and babies in the Dóchas Centre. Provisions are made to facilitate new mothers keeping their infants with them in custody so as not to disrupt early bonding.

“Each mother and child are provided with their own single room with en-suite facilities on their return to the Dóchas Centre after giving birth. Required items such as a cot, baby food, nappies etc are also provided.”

He said a meeting was held between the Prison Service and HSE since the report.

“Following that meeting, which was in the context of advancing child protection at the Dóchas Centre, it was agreed that a child protection multi-disciplinary group (with HSE child protection representation) will be established for the Dóchas Centre.

“This group will include relevant prison management, healthcare, probation, psychology, counselling and HSE representation.

“The group will agree procedures and protocols to safeguard the protection and welfare of children at the Dóchas Centre.

A representative at governor level will be assigned responsibility for child protection matters and will chair the group.

“The group will also examine environmental factors, in consultation with IPS health and safety personnel to ensure that all appropriate logistical measures are adopted to support the protection and welfare of children.”