Mountjoy Prison - McDowell should heed inspector

NOT for the first time has Justice Minister Michael McDowell inexplicably turned a deaf ear to the scandalous conditions that prevail in Mountjoy Prison, the country’s largest jail.

He has been warned time and again by the Prison Inspector, retired High Court judge, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, not just about Mountjoy but the defects in the prison system generally.

Now, the outmoded, decrepit, overcrowded and drugs infested institution stands as a warped reminder of what is worst in our prison system.