JAIL CRISIS TO EASE 'IN TWO YEARS'

JUSTICE Minister John O'Donoghue yesterday pledged the prisons problem would
be resolved within two years following an accelerated building programme and
staff recruitment campaign.

Commenting on the latest damning report by the Mountjoy Visiting Committee,
the minister said he was confident of fulfilling the Government's commitment
to providing more than 1,000 more prison spaces within two years of taking
office.

Mr O'Donoghue, who opens the 160-place Castlerea Prison today, said the new
Cloverhill remand prison would ease overcrowding in Mountjoy.

Some 200 remand prisoners would be transferred to Cloverhill from Mountjoy
by the end of the year, and he will also shortly sign a contract for a
400-place prison at Portlaoise. The new 80-place women's prison at Mountjoy
would also help ease problems, he said.

While it was not viable to close Mountjoy in the short term, he promised a
review of the prison "floor by floor, landing by landing", to see where
refurbishments could be carried out.

Mr O'Donoghue admitted there had been "difficulties" with psychiatric
services, as highlighted in the Mountjoy Visiting Committee's report, but
the resources were now available from the health board.

Meanwhile the 150-year-old Mountjoy Prison was declared "past its sell-by
date" by Governor John Lonergan yesterday.

Responding to the prison visiting committee report, which described the
level of overcrowding as intolerable, he said it needed "a huge amount" of
refurbishment and resources. In his time as governor, the average population
in the prison had gone from 440 to 760 with no significant increase in
resources.

"It's a reflection of our society today," the governor said. "I detected for
many years an indifference towards minorities by the general public, and
prisoners are a significant minority of people."

The 1997 report of the Mountjoy committee said the root of the prison's
problems lay primarily in overcrowding which led to increased drug-taking,
violence, depression and the spread of infectious illnesses.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"