IPRT sets out objections to Thornton Hall
27th May 2008
Prison Plans Need Debate
Today the Dáil will debate the proposed construction of the largest prison in the history of the State at Thornton Hall in North County Dublin. The proposals to close the four existing prison units at the Mountjoy site and Cork prison and replace them with two new prison complexes at Thornton Hall and Kilworth in Cork represent the most significant development in the Irish prison system for a generation. Regrettably, to date this unprecedented capital project has not been the subject of substantial public debate.
Government statements on the rationale behind the project have emphasised the need to address the current poor conditions in Mountjoy men's prison and in that respect the commitment to invest in modern and humane prison conditions is to be welcomed. Mountjoy and St. Patrick's Institution were identified as not being fit for human habitation by the Whitaker Committee in 1985 and conditions in those prisons as well as in Cork, Limerick and Portlaoise have been the focus of consistent criticism from the Inspector of Prisons and international bodies such as the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture. The long overdue decision to replace some of these unsanitary, overcrowded and violent institutions is deserving of praise.
However, recognition that something needed to be done about existing prison conditions does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the present proposals for Thornton Hall are the answer. At present the four prisons at the Mountjoy site have an official capacity of approximately 963 - although official "operational capacity" figures mask overcrowding that results from shared cells. From the information that has been made public, it appears that Thornton Hall will have capacity for 1400 prisoners initially, and already there has been reference to having a potential capacity of 2200 if cells "double-up" in the future.
No demographic or criminological evidence has been evinced to show why the significant expansion of prison capacity in needed and such an increase in the prison population could have long-term repercussions for wider criminal justice policy in Ireland. International experience tells us that if prison places are built, over time ways are found to fill them. In Ireland, for example, the construction of a remand prison at Cloverhill has meant a significant increase in unconvicted prisoners detained in remand and the prison population of England and Wales has almost doubled in the past fifteen years with no significant impact on levels of crime.
The rationale for choosing to build large prisons at remote locations is also unclear. All over Europe, the trend is towards smaller regional prisons, which are more conducive to fostering a rehabilitative atmosphere and where it easier to segregate different categories of prisoners. Prison "warehouses" on an American scale have been seen to pose security and regime difficulties on a scale that our prison staff have no experience of dealing with. Questions also need to be asked about how will a public-private partnership operate in maintaining and running a prison. Again, the international evidence on private sector involvement in running prisons is not encouraging and recent experience here has raised questions about Government capacity to control these projects.
There are particular problems with how the new prisons will impact on certain specific groups of prisoners and detainees. Reports of plans for a large immigration detention facility at the site signal that Government may be planning to increase detention of asylum seekers at a time when asylum seeker numbers have been consistently dropping. Despite longstanding commitments to remove all children from our prison system, it seems that contingency plans exist to transfer the minors currently detained in St. Patrick's Institution to Thornton Hall if suitable alternatives are not in place by 2012. The proposed co-location of a prison with a relocated Central Mental Hospital presents obvious difficulties for those providing medical care to the mentally ill. Perhaps most surprisingly there are also plans to replace the Dóchas Centre, a state of the art women's prison built only ten years ago, with a new women's prison with twice as many prisoners at an isolated location away from inmates' families.
In relation to all of these groups of potential detainees in the new prison, fundamental questions remain unanswered. We hope that the new Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will now facilitate a much-needed public consultation around this issue of critical public interest. As a baseline, there must be no place at Thornton Hall for children, the mentally ill or for migrants who have not committed crimes. A smaller Thornton Hall restricted to housing those men currently in Mountjoy with guaranteed single cell occupancy would mark a positive resolution to the longstanding need for a modern, humane and secure prison for adult men to replace Mountjoy. Unfortunately, as currently conceived there is a real danger that Thornton Hall could mark the beginning of a drift towards expensive and counter-productive warehousing of offenders with long term detrimental effects for Irish society.
Liam Herrick is the Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT). IPRT is non-governmental organisation committed to reducing imprisonment, respecting the rights of everyone in the penal system and progressive reform of the penal system based on evidence-led policies.