DRUG AND PRISON FUTURE FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUTH

EARLY school leavers from disadvantaged areas are seriously at risk
of becoming involved in crime, according to prison officials,
community workers and local politicians.

Both Merchants Quay Ireland and the Governor of Mountjoy Prison say
the vast majority of people in prison and with drug problems have
had little or no secondary education.

Governor John Lonergan of Mountjoy told Southside People that a
whopping 94 per cent of inmates left school before reaching 16 and
over half of all prisoners are semi-illiterate.

"School leaving is certainly a very clear indicator that a young
person is already at risk," he said.

"It is not automatic that if they are an early school leaver they
are going to be involved in drugs and crime.

"But education or the lack of it is certainly a major contributing
factor. It certainly highlights that there is potential for
difficulty down the line.

"So I would totally agree with anyone who would say that many young
people who have no secondary education are more at risk of becoming
involved in crime and drugs."

According to research carried out on behalf of Mountjoy Prison, a
total of 75 per cent of prisoners come from Dublin's six most
disadvantaged areas.

"The general areas that were identified to be blackspots from the
research were the North Inner City, the South Inner City and the old
Ballymun flats complex," said Governor Lonergan.

"On the Southside of the Liffey, Oliver Bond flats, Dolphin's Barn
flats, a small part of the Crumlin area and certain parts of
Ballyfermot and Chapelizod were identified.

"Paul O'Malley did research in Mountjoy in 1986, 1996 and 1997. It
was a very comprehensive piece of research but the weakness now is
that it is eight-years-old.

"But the same blackspots are providing the same results for the high
number of people ending up in Mountjoy. It has changed only
slightly. New areas would have come on stream, such as parts of
Finglas, Clondalkin and Tallaght.

"But generally we still have the same blackspots; they are still
supplying us with a huge number of prisoners."

Governor Lonergan believes regeneration and education are key
factors in tackling the ongoing problem of young people being
involved in crime and drugs.

"What percentage of people from the old flats complex in Ballymun,
graduate to DCU, which is only 200-300 metres away?" he asked.

"That is the challenge: can we bring children through the second
level of education and then on to the third level?

"You have to support the parents and you have to change the whole
culture of the area as well in terms of its social status."

Tony Geoghegan of Merchants Quay Ireland backs up many of Governor
Lonergan's observations. He says that the majority of drug addicts
he has worked with have had no secondary education.

He also wants to see the Government focusing more attention on
poverty in disadvantaged areas to prevent more young people getting
caught up in drug addiction.

"The biggest common dominator amongst a lot of people that use our
needle exchange is that they are early school leavers," he said.

"I really do believe that if you can retain and support people in
education, to even just stay in for second level, they have a chance
of doing OK.

"I would like to see drug prevention focused much more on supporting
families and supporting anti-poverty initiatives. It would certainly
undermine a lot of the demand for drugs.

"It's not by chance that drug users are most prevalent in areas of
poverty. So I think that real prevention is not to mention drugs at
all - real prevention is supporting people in poverty; it's about
supporting people in families and to keep kids in school."

According to this summer's National Education Welfare Board
Attendance Report, one in every five primary school students in the
most disadvantaged primary schools missed 20 or more school days
compared to one in every 16 primary school students in the least
disadvantaged schools.

It was no great surprise to Independent TD Tony Gregory that the
report confirmed that areas of economic disadvantage have the worst
school attendance records.

Deputy Gregory also believes that some children in disadvantaged
areas get involved in crime and drugs because of increasing social
disadvantage in underprivileged areas throughout Dublin.

"One follows logically from the other," he says.

"If you examine where the early school leavers are, 99 per cent of
them are in schools serving disadvantaged areas. It follows that
there is a link with social disadvantage and early school leaving.

"That goes on to compound the problem; the child leaves early
because of the disadvantage in the family background and living environment.

"The child goes out of school and is more likely to get involved in
anti-social behaviour, drug abuse and crime. The way to tackle it is
to eliminate social disadvantage.

"We have the second most unequal society in the world, we are told.
While we are very affluent, some communities are, relatively
speaking, very poor.

"If you don't address that and put resources into disadvantaged
areas, you will inevitably have many early school leavers going from
one problem to another whether it's drug abuse or crime.

"But certainly they won't have a chance to better themselves; the
only way to get out of a situation of disadvantage is through
education and becoming qualified and eventually getting a decent job."