JAIL CRUSH

In theory, Mountjoy Jail holds 450 prisoners. But on Wednesday night
776 inmates were crammed into this Victorian institution, in
conditions that would not have been tolerated 100 years ago. Up to 90
of them slept on the floor.

Thankfully, the situation will not last much longer. When the
Government's prison building programme is completed, it will be
possible to refurbish Mountjoy section by section, to provide
education, work training and psychiatric help, and to install decent
sanitary facilities.

But what was the purpose of the building programme to begin with? It
was to provide 2,000 new prison places not for petty offenders but for
those guilty of serious crimes.

The public were rightly outraged at the spectacle of violent criminals
being released in weeks or months. They did not envisage the
incarceration of shoplifters or persons who had defaulted on fines.
Still less did they suppose that an overstaffed service could not
prevent suicides.

The building programme must proceed as speedily as possible. Drug
barons and rapists must never again profit from the ``revolving door
syndrome''. But petty criminals do not need long sentences. They need
rehabilitation; and that is impossible without civilised conditions.