Article from the Sept. 2006 issue of the Socialist
newspaper of the Socialist Party, Irish section of the CWI

Prison system in crisis

Violence, murder, suicide, victorian conditions….

By Colm Halpin

WITH A number of deaths from violence or suicide in prison recently, conditions are in crisis. Having in the past spent time in most prisons, I saw how in the early eighties the Dept. of Justice started building within the walls of Mountjoy making the yards smaller for exercise.

Drugs had not got much of a hold then, there was a good spirit mostly. Protests occurred every few years over visits, food or lousy washing and toilet conditions known as slopping out. Prison officers became militant and organised as they had to endure bad conditions along with the prisoners. There were clashes between some prisoners and the more physical prison officers, but at the back of all these outbreaks was the tension due to bad conditions. Today the battle going on is between the Dept. of Justice and the Prison Officers Association (POA). The Victorian prisons should be closed down but in the meantime there must be enough cells and enough staff to run them in a humane way.

The POA are right to call for the reopening of some former prisons to end the immediate crisis of overcrowding. It’s nonsense to talk about a new prison being built four years down the line. People’s lives are on the line now. Every prisoner should have a single cell by right unless they need company themselves with another prisoner.

In the mid eighties they started to close down the shoe, carpentry, glove and mat workshops. But the Special Olympics recently showed how important such work can be. Prisoners made all the flags and provided other help. Having something constructive to do in prison is half the battle won in doing your hard time.

You can’t have capitalism without crime, it flows from an unequal society. Ireland locks up more people than other countries for petty things like fines. Crime for need will only end when the causes of such crime have been eradicated. In the meantime, common cause should prevail between prisoners and prison officers in helping to better the situation for all concerned.