Cork Prison reconsiders plan for visitor centre

The Irish Prison Service has sought expressions of interest for a prison visitors’ centre (PVC) in Cork Prison, two years after an initial plan failed to deliver a similar facility.

The Irish Prison Service said the centre would operate six days a week.

“This facility will provide a hospitable, safe, caring and supportive environment for children and families of prisoners, some of whom are in a vulnerable state, prior to and after prison visits,” it said.

“It is envisaged that the facility will employ a full-time family-support worker and a sessional child-support worker (30 hours per week) to provide childcare and family support services, and link with community services and with the prison-based multi-disciplinary team.”

It is also considering a 24-month contract.

Back in late 2015, the IPS also sought expressions of interest for a visitors’ centre, with work underway, at that point, on the €35m revamp of the prison.

However, the tender did not result in a visitors’ centre, although the St Nicholas trust has been providing hospitality services.

Fiona Donson, law lecturer and director of the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights at University College Cork, said the expression of interest for the PVC was overdue, but was to be welcomed.

“After that tender, two years ago, nothing was put in place and that was deeply disappointing,” she said.

Dr Donson said the revamped Cork Prison was much-improved, compared with the old building, and that staff there had been doing “brilliant work”, including in the community.

She said a PVC would be a hugely positive development for prisoners, their families, and particularly children affected by having a family member in jail, and that this was backed by literature on the subject.

“If we provide services that do the right thing, we can make a huge difference to these children and their families,” she said.

“There is a sense that we are coming from such a low base that it will be incredibly important.

“It needs to be child-centred, it needs to be about hearing the children, working with them, and hearing their voices.”

Dr Donson said that she knew of families who did not visit the prison with their children, because the existing services were not sufficiently family-friendly and that she also knew of prisoners who did not want their children to visit, because it would be “too traumatic”.

Dr Donson said it was a shame the initial plan had not come to fruition and she was delighted that the IPS was trying to deliver a visitors centre now.

A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service said: “Given the time that has elapsed since the last EOI process, we are exploring what interest there may be, with a view to putting in place a professional family support service at Cork Prison Visitor Centre, similar to other closed prisons.”