Ireland’s prison system under fire over treatment of inmates with mental illness

RTÉ documentary lays bare how prisoners with severe mental illness are failed by the State, with devastating consequences for families

Paula and Michael Loughlin, parents of Jimmy Loughlin who died in 2018, when Richard McLaughlin burst through the front door of his home in Sligo and killed him with a crowbar. Picture: James Connolly

There was merely fair-to-middling concern this week over the exposure of a scandal that involves dehumanising and degrading vulnerable human beings, despite thinking of ourselves as a caring and compassionate society.

A two-part documentary entitled The Psychiatric Care Scandal was broadcast on RTÉ at prime viewing time.