Mick Clifford: Prisons should not be used as dumping grounds for mentally ill people

In a functioning system, judges should be able to refer mentally ill offenders to an appropriate setting. In reality, that option does not exist in this State, writes Mick Clifford

Kay Barrett (left) with her sister Clair, her father John, and grandfather Billy Nestor at home in Donoughmore Co Cork in happier times. Now suffering mental illness, Kay is in prison rather than in hospital. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Last Monday in the 'Irish Examiner', Noel Baker reported a story that has no place in a fully developed country, not to mind democracy. There has been no public reaction to a report about how the State considers it appropriate to treat a mentally ill woman by putting her in prison. 

It’s as if human and civil rights only elicit interest these days if the cause is new and trendy.