Prison comments an insult to mentally ill people

IN their unseemly rush to generate profit from the site of the Mountjoy prison complex, the Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats coalition is stamping over the rights of people who are ill and in confinement.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell has insulted people who are mentally ill by declaring they will be the customers of the new super-prison in Co Dublin.

Lumping the Central Mental Hospital along with the super-prison on one site is a backward step and imposes a stigma on people suffering from mental illness.