PRISON DRUGS AND SEX TREATMENTS PLANNED

There will be a greater emphasis on prisoners confronting their own
offending behaviour in the new Prison Service, its new
director-general told Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs
Correspondent

Methadone maintenance and drug-free units will be considered for drug
addicts in a new drug centre which it is hoped will be established in
the refurbished Mountjoy Prison, according to the new director-general
of the Prison Service.

Mr Sean Aylward also wants to extend the sex offenders' treatment
programme, drawing specially trained prison officers into that
programme, along with teachers, psychologists and others. There has
been a good response to an existing programme, which includes
"thinking skills", he said.

This programme seeks to get the prisoner to confront his own offending
behaviour, and he sees this as an important role for the prisons.

He said that one in seven prisoners - a total of 391 - is a sex
offender. The majority is held in Arbour Hill, the Curragh and
Wheatfield, but there are also sex offenders in Castlerea, Cork,
Limerick and Mountjoy, as well as those remanded for such offences in
Cloverhill.

He told The Irish Times a review group was discussing the future use
of Mountjoy after it had been fully revamped. It is hoped it will
house a drug-treatment centre for the whole State, with all the
facilities available in the community outside, including methadone
maintenance, a detoxification unit and a drug-free unit, subject to
safety considerations.

Mr Aylward said most prisoners were serving quite long sentences for
serious offences. It was a myth, he said, that large numbers of
prisoners were crime defaulters or in prison for trivial offences:
almost two-thirds of the sentenced prison population were serving
sentences for violent crimes.

Nonetheless, he said, there would be a greater emphasis on
rehabilitation in the new service. "The resources for care and
rehabilitation will quadruple in the new regime," he said.

It is eight months since Mr Aylward was appointed director-general.
The Prison Service is to be run independently of the Department of
Justice under a new Prisons Authority Interim Board.

The setting up of such a board, with an independent director-general,
affords an opportunity for the transformation of the service. In just
over a month the long awaited change in the bail laws will come about
when the order implementing it is signed. This was delayed due to the
lack of prison places. But the new remand prison at Cloverhill has now
been built, and already contains about 150 prisoners. Its capacity is
400, and Mr Aylward expects it to be full by the end of the summer.

However, this new prison, which should be state of the art, is in
danger of overcrowding. Of the cells, 108 provide for triple
occupancy, which is not recommended best practice, especially for
remand prisoners who are not guilty of any offence.

Mr Aylward told The Irish Times that this was unavoidable. "The last
inch has been got out of that site. At the moment in Mountjoy there
are mattresses on the floor.

"Having a third bunk was a classic management compromise. We will only
use the third bunk when it is unavoidable and only for a few days."

There is an observation unit in Cloverhill, and there will be one in
all new prisons, to monitor prisoners and try to avoid incidents of
self-harm, including suicide. There was also a nursing staff of 11, he
said. "I think they are also trying to recruit one medical officer."

The other new prison is the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, replacing
the old prison there. It has plumbing in the cells, workshops which
replicate real factory conditions, training facilities and single cells.

However, there will be no communal dining area, and prisoners will
still collect their meals and eat them in their cells.

"In the old movies the communal dining areas are where the riots
happen," said Mr Aylward. "When a considerable number of people are
concentrated there are issues of supervision.

"There is a huge cost factor with communal dining. You have to be
careful in innovation in the management of large groups of adult male
prisoners."

One of the most persistent issues to arise in discussion of the prison
service is the amount and cost of overtime worked by prison officers.

Much of this arose from the rosters drawn up in the wake of the prison
officers' strike more than two decades ago, according to Mr Aylward.

"They had huge gaps in them, which are an impediment to good
management." Such gaps include no rostered provision for dinner
supervision, or for escorting prisoners to court.

At the moment a review of every post, every roster and every prisoner
in the State was taking place, with a view to a radical overhaul. But
this would have to be negotiated with the Prison Officers'
Association, he said.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture reported
allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners by prison officers, quoting
a governor that the "rogue officers" were known.

Mr Aylward feels that this quote may have been the result of a
misunderstanding. However, he is adamant that no ill-treatment will be
tolerated. "If there is a shred of evidence we will proceed against
them," he said.

Asked if he favoured the appointment of a prison inspector, which was
promised by the then minister for justice, Ms Maire Geoghegan-Quinn,
six years ago, he said that this was a statutory post which would be
created at the first legislative opportunity.