Mick Clifford: Government doesn’t care about prisons

'Apart from the families of prisoners, the public doesn’t interact with the service. There are no votes in prisoners’ rights.'

A new man got the job of keeping an eye on the guards this week. 

Judge Rory McCabe was appointed by the Government as chair of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSoc). 

His appointment will see him elevated from the circuit to High Court bench. His predecessor, the outgoing chair, Judge Mary Ellen Ring, also received the same promotion when she began her first term in GSoc in 2016. 

The promotion could be viewed as carrot to get a judge take up the role.

The Government, in seeking to fill Judge Ring’s boots, made plain that they were looking for another judge for the job. 

The selection committee to find the right person was chaired by the chief justice. There is nothing in the law that says the chair must be a judge, but any observer of policing matters would surely conclude that, on the face of it, that’s a good idea.

Many among the gardaí resent and resist GSoc’s oversight role. There has, over the years, been numerous instances of gardaí delaying and attempting to deflect inquires. 

Dealing with that sort of thing takes more than a good backbone. 

A judge brings an ingrained level of independence, knowledge of the law, and experience in presiding in courts where there is acceptance of rulings. Or, to perhaps put it colloquially, it might be expected that a judge won’t take no shit from nobody. 

That kind of background would be a great asset for the top job in policing the police. 

It doesn’t infer that any judge would have the qualities required — many wouldn’t — or that anybody else couldn’t do a better job, but it is a good starting point from which to exercise oversight on an instinctively resistant body.

If only the same level of thought went into a similar role, that of overseeing governance of the Irish prison system. 

Patricia Gilheaney took up the role in 2018. Picture: Jason Clarke Photography

Currently, the public appointments commission is examining candidates for the job of Inspector of Prisons. The incumbent, Patricia Gilheaney, is leaving the role before her five-year term is up.

Ms Gilheaney took up the job in 2018. Previously, she was the chief executive of the Mental Health Commission, widely regarded as a competent and dedicated public servant. 

Sources across the prison sector confirm she brought that diligence to her role as inspector. But while she has not publicly stated reasons for her early departure, it would be entirely understandable if she was frustrated by the demands of the office. 

For the Irish prison system’s approach to oversight makes the gardaí look like putty in the hands of GSoc.

The system exists in a milieu in which its chief focus is to stay in the shadows of the State apparatus. Don’t attract attention, don’t cause any controversy for the minister or the department. 

For the greater part, there can only be negative publicity from the service ending up in headlines. 

Apart from the families of prisoners, the public doesn’t interact with the service. There are no votes in prisoners’ rights.

Within the system, there would appear — certainly to this columnist who has covered goings-on in prisons for the last few years — a highly unusual relationship between management and staff. 

The Irish Prison Service and the Prison Officers Association have the kind of working relationship that in other sectors would be classed as excellent. 

The only problem here is that there is a third party, the prisoners, and when their safety and welfare — or that of staff who are not members of the POA — cause any kind of issue, the first instinct would appear to be to brush the whole affair under the nearest cell door.

In such an environment, the last thing anybody really wants is an inspector who is bolshie, independent, and driven to ensure that rights and the law are observed even in the dark recesses of the State where prisons operate.

There have been a number of incidents during Ms Gilheaney’s tenure which might have given her pause for thought about the job. 

In 2019, a major investigation was conducted into allegations that some officers were putting the safety of their colleagues in danger by bad-mouthing them to the most dangerous criminals in the prison system. 

An external investigator, John Naughton, concluded the allegations had substance yet the matter was quietly put to bed.

A current investigation is being conducted by the inspector into serious allegations emanating from the women’s prison, the Dóchas Centre. 

The allegations were brought to the inspector’s attention and she correctly informed the Minister for Justice in July 2020, who ordered an inquiry into the matter. 

The inquiry was supposed to have concluded in March of this year, but it is still ongoing.

In September 2020, the chaplain in the Dóchas Centre, Claire Hargaden, left her post, citing health concerns due to a culture within the prison that she described as one of “fear, indifference, hostility and ineptitude”.

In her letter to the director general of the IPS explaining her position, Ms Hargaden wrote that the prisoners lived in fear.

“Upon making a complaint, some have found themselves under a spotlight and victims of harassment and further unfair treatment,” she wrote.

The chaplains have no power within the system other than to record issues in annual reports.

The inspector’s inquiry, which requires a high degree of co-operation from staff is dragging on way beyond the initial deadline. 

Yet there appears to be no interest among management in the IPS, or even the department, to ensure that the matter is concluded. 

From the outside, the whole affair appears to be one in which the inspector is battling valiantly against indifference and perhaps even hostility while all those with the real power look the other way.

Ms Gilheaney’s predecessor, Judge Michael Reilly, died suddenly in 2016 while still in office. Shortly before his death, he gave an interview outlining why accountability was so important when dealing with an area such as prisons.

“Prisoners only forfeit rights to freedom,” he said. “They don’t forfeit all the other rights that you and I have as members of society. And these rights are human rights and human rights have been guaranteed by the international community.”

Ensuring those rights are observed is a hell of a job in the environment and culture which exists in the Irish prison system. 

The lucky candidate in the current recruitment process will have a lot on his or her plate when they take up their new role. 

A Government serious about its responsibility to a prison population which includes a high proportion of individuals with mental health issues, might be expected to put a little more thought into the process, rather than recruiting as if for a standard public service job. 

However, there is no reason to believe that this or any other Government really cares a whit about prisons beyond keeping them out of the headlines.