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Government must drop plans for super-prison at Thornton Hall - Ó Snodaigh
Published: 10 October, 2007
Sinn Féin Justice Spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has called on the Government to drop its plan to build a super-prison at Thornton Hall. Deputy Ó Snodaigh was speaking in the Dáil today after a report from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture expressed concern about increasing levels of prisoner violence fuelled by the widespread availability of illegal drugs and the existence of a gang culture.
He said, "The report of the European Committee for the Prevention of
Torture which concluded that Irish prisons are unsafe for prisoners and
prison staff is a shocking indictment of this government's failed prison
policy contained.
"The Government must immediately drop its plan to build a super-prison
at Thornton Hall. Super-prisons, by virtue of their scale, are even
more difficult to manage and hence will become more unsafe and more
entrenched in gang culture. This in turn will mitigate successful
rehabilitation and will in turn lead to increased crime through
re-offending."
Speaking later Deputy Ó Snodaigh went on to call on the Government to
look at using alternatives to prison for non-violent and less serious
offenders to stop exposing such offenders to unsafe prison conditions.
He said, "A report from the UCD Institute of Criminology last year
revealed that the majority of prisoners serving sentences of less than
three months have been jailed for non-violent offences such as fine
defaulting. An astonishing 85% of these prisoners are back in jail
within a year of being released. All of this is at a huge cost to the
state.
"The only conclusion to be drawn from all of this is that greater use
should be made of alternatives to prison which are more effective in
terms of the ultimate goal of reducing re-offending. They are also
much cheaper to administer.
"It is my hope that the Fines Bill which is scheduled to be debated in
the Dáil this week will reflect the need for alternatives to prison.
This would help to reduce the numbers exposed to unsafe prison
conditions by ensuring that fines are linked to the offender's financial
circumstances."
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