Bored St Patrick’s Institution prisoners 'left to rot'
St Patrick’s Institution was condemned today as a warehouse containing young people in total and absolute boredom.
Human rights campaigner Fr Peter McVerry also claimed the vast majority of young people coming out of the medium security prison are more likely to commit crime as a result of their experience behind bars.
He said inmates are "left to rot" in the jail, which is the only detention centre in the state for 16-21-year-old men.
“Young people have absolutely nothing to do,” said Fr McVerry. “They are locked in the cells for 19 hours a day, and the other five hours the majority of them walk aimlessly and meaninglessly around the yard.
“They have nothing to do at a time when they have the most energy, at a time of very significant development for them, they are simply left there to rot.”
The priest is also appalled that whatever rehabilitation did exist in prisons in the past has been cut back.
“All the workshops that were there in the 70s and 80s were closed, one or two have now recently reopened under the criticism that was made by the inspector of prisons in his latest report,” he continued.
“The literacy scheme that was there was abolished, even though 80% of the prisoners in St Patrick’s have literacy problems. It’s simply an appalling place.”
Fr McVerry, who has spent 30 years visiting inmates, is writing on rehabilitation in Irish prisons today for the publication Working Notes produced by the Jesuits.
The said that despite spending a fortune locking up young people, they come out of St Patrick’s worse than they went in.
He also believes crime, as an issue in society, will be an issue in the upcoming election.
“The key question that I think the public have to ask is are the young people and not so young people who come out of our prisons after having an enormous amount of money spent on them more likely or less likely to commit further crime?,” he continued.
“I have no doubt about it, the vast majority of young people coming out of our prisons are actually more likely to commit crime as a result of their experience in prison.
“Their experience in prison is destructive, it is dehumanising, it destroys their dignity, it makes them more alienated and more angry with society and therefore society is much less safe after having spend 80,000 or 100,000 euro per year on them.”
He told RTE radio that if a new prison planned for Thornton Hall is going to make a difference it has to be planned to make a difference, with facilities in the new juvenile prison for training, workshops and education for young people.
