‘Slopping out’ to be eliminated by 2016

The practice of prisoners “slopping out” will be “gone forever” by early 2016, the prisons boss has said.

Victorian scenes of inmates in cramped cells going to the toilet in front of each other, even as they eat, will end, Prison Service director general Michael Donnellan stated.

Watchdogs have repeatedly condemned the practice, which still continues in Cork, Limerick, Mountjoy, and Portlaoise prisons.

Mr Donnellan said major refurbishment works in Mountjoy will mean the end of slopping out there by September.

That will be followed by Limerick in early 2014, the E block in Portlaoise soon after, and the construction of a new Cork prison by early 2016.

“That will eliminate the slopping out in Irish prisons forever by early 2016,” said Mr Donnellan. Making the announcement at the annual conference of the Prison Officers’ Association in Athlone, he said every inmate will have access to in-cell sanitation by that stage.

Mr Donnellan accepted there had been many false dawns in relation to Cork Prison, but said: “We have absolute priority to build and replace a new Cork Prison so we are hoping to have the builders on site this year with a completion date of early 2016.”

He said there had been major strides in Mountjoy: “By September of this year, slopping out in Mountjoy will be finished. That is such a statement, something which has gone back to the 1850s. The A, B, and C wings will have been completely refurbished and the D wing will be closed.”

In addition to the E block in Portlaoise, the other major project was Limerick, the oldest prison.

He said: “We have closed down the D wing already because it was so out of date, we are well advanced on that and hopefully have that replaced by early next year.”

But Mr Donnellan accepted there were still major problems in the prison system, including feuding and protection.

He said there were 629 people on protection, or one in seven of the 4,300 people in jail.

The number is down on previous years. He said a third of those on protection were on 23-hour lock-up in their cells.

“There’s no doubt that the protection issue is a huge challenge to the service. We have a huge amount of gangs and factions who need to be kept away from each other and where people on committal are asking us to be kept in a separate regime.”

He said that in Mountjoy alone, there were seven gangs or factions in D wing.

“We’ve introduced the whole incentivised regime over the last 12 months and we’re trying to use that mechanism to create a safe environment where people can serve their sentences. Some 629 out of a prison population of 4,300 is a very high number. It’s a growing problem that is not going to be solved quickly.”

He said the numbers of assaults on prisoners was down dramatically. There were 107 prisoner on prisoner assaults in 2012, compared to 141 in 2011, while the number of prisoner on prisoner assaults fell from 1,115 in 2011 to 715 last year.