Chaplains criticise practice of imprisoning people with mental illness

Bishop Martin Hayes said that a recent visit to Mountjoy Prison demonstrated to him that the facility is 'under huge pressure'. File Picture: Courtpix

Chaplains have widely criticised the practice of imprisoning people with mental illness, often in wholly unsuitable environments.

In newly published reports, the chaplains in the State’s 12 prisons repeatedly point out that the prisons are accommodating a high proportion of people with mental health difficulties. 

“Being confined to a small cell for hours every day when your mind is tortured is a terrible punishment,” one of the reports states. 

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The observation is among a number of criticisms of how the prison system is currently operating as seen by the chaplains who work within the prison environment.

Publication of the 2021 reports had been delayed for over a year, but they have now finally been published online.

A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said a number of recommendations from a recent mental health task force would “fundamentally improve mental health services for persons committed to custody with serious mental illness".

Among the observations made in the chaplains' reports are:

• Lack of access to bereavement services, including the possibility of attending funerals of loved ones;
• Absence of aftercare facilities for released prisoners, including the manner in which they are released. “The bags that prisoners are issued with to hold their property are the same bags that are used to contain rubbish in the prison system. What is that saying to human dignity?” the Dochas chaplains report states;
• A system for transgender prisoners in Limerick Prison in which the prisoners are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day;
• The understaffing, employment conditions, and reduced pay for prison chaplains, whose function is to advocate for both prisoners and staff within the system;

The publication of the reports comes on the same weekend that Bishop Martin Hayes said that a recent visit to Mountjoy Prison demonstrated to him that the facility is “under huge pressure to cope with the demands placed on it".