Eoin Carroll is the Social Policy and Communications Co-ordinator with the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice (JCFJ). The JCFJ, which engages in social policy analysis in order to effect real change for those experiencing structural injustices, recently published a report critiquing the Irish Prison Service’s (IPS) progress in implementing their strategic plan. The report is entitled “Making Progress? Examining the first year of the Irish Prison Service’s Three Year Strategic Plan 2012–2013”.
By their very nature prisons are closed institutions, largely cut off from wider society. This means that they require scrutiny from international and European bodies, the Oireachtas, national inspection mechanisms and also from civil society organisations. The JCFJ report is a monitoring exercise as to whether or not the IPS accomplished its own goals. It also identifies policy implementation lag and areas where greater aspiration in goals is needed. Despite these criticisms the report highlights several new and innovative policy developments. Peter McVerry, who spoke at the launch of the report, said for the first time in decades he was hopeful for the future of Irish prisons.
Click here to read the report.
Positive developments
The report shows that significant progress has been made in a number of areas, including:
- A reduction in prison numbers and overcrowding. The prison numbers dipped below 4,000 in September 2013 – returning to the 2009 average – rising again slightly by late September;
- Significant improvements in conditions in parts of Mountjoy Prison which is on target to have single cell occupancy as the norm and full in-cell sanitation;
- The national roll-out of the Community Return Programme, which enables eligible prisoners serving between one and eight year sentences to serve the remaining part of their sentence (up to 50 percent) in the community under supervision. According to the Department of Justice, 90 percent of participants have successfully completed the programme. The programme has allowed people to “make good” harm caused by their actions. It also provides needed supports to people integrating back into their community.
- The report notes that various groups, including prison chaplains, have been critical of the prison service for not developing individualised plans for prisoners and the notion of people progressing through their sentence. While concerns are expressed about the level of resources being allocated to it, the philosophy and practice of sentence planning, named Integrated Sentence Management, is being introduced in many of the prisons.
Areas of concern
The report also highlights a number of concerns, including:
- While there have been reductions in overall prison numbers, proposals continue for prison estate expansion. The programme for government committed to reducing the prison population. In early 2012, IPS Director General Michael Donnellan said that the system is tipped towards too many people in prison and must be re-balanced. However, this desire to reduce numbers is not reflected in the plans for expansion within the prison estate. The new Cork prison is to have up to 100 extra places, and new wings in Limerick Prison will increase capacity by 67 places (45 for men, 22 for women);
- Previous government policy aspirations to introduce a one-person, one-cell standard have now firmly been abandoned. Doubling up – referred to by Professor Ian O’Donnell as “institutionalising overcrowding” – has been designed into Cork and Limerick’s the proposed prison developments. In contrast, the report highlights the success of the one person one cell policy in Mountjoy. Currently, 56 percent of people in prison share a cell – a practice which is inconsistent with international best practice and can be extremely dangerous if not carefully managed. The report highlights that the IPS made a commitment to develop a standardised cell sharing risk assessment tool in year one of their Strategic Plan - however, this has not yet been published.
- There has been no development of previously promised strategies for particular groups including women prisoners, prisoners requiring protection, young people in prison, older prisoners and people convicted of a sex offence. The report worryingly notes that the removal of young people from St Patrick’s Institution to Wheatfield prison was more an ad-hoc response to the Inspector of Prison’s troubling reports on St Patrick’s Institution, rather than the result of a specific strategy to provide for the special needs of young people in prison.
Significantly, the IPS has not yet published a follow-up implementation plan for the remainder of its Three Year Strategic Plan period. Pauline McCabe, former Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, commented at the launch of the JCFJ report that, “Published implementation plans not only suggest genuine commitment but also help to ensure that planning for important activities, delivered by the Prison, Healthcare, Probation and other services are properly joined up, and that there is real delivery accountability. In the absence of robust implementation planning I have seen huge amounts of money, spent with good intentions, failing hopelessly to deliver the required results.”
It is in this spirit the JCFJ calls upon the IPS to publish a new implementation plan, fully informed by the year one implementation plan, and the concerns raised in our review.
For more information about the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, visit www.jcfj.ie and facebook.com/jcfj.ie