Thursday, October 25, 2012

Prison chaplains warn St Patrick's report slipping off agenda

The head of the Irish prison chaplaincy team has criticised the lack of general public concern regarding the treatment of children in St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders as, “hard to comprehend.”

In a statement issued in response to the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly's damming report, Fr Ciaran Enright said it is, “incredible to drive along our streets … and see posters urging a ‘Yes for Children’ while we seem content to quietly ignore the plight of one particular group of children.”

Expressing the hope that Judge Reilly’s report will have a lasting impact, he called on the Department of Justice to make all necessary changes.  

However, he said prison chaplains’ experience had taught them, “to be less than optimistic this will be the case.”

Speaking on behalf of the country’s prison chaplains, Fr Enright said that too often, it is easier for us all to ignore children’s voices if they only emerge in the pages of reports. He said the chaplains are committed to doing all they could in the coming weeks to ensure that the promises made would be followed up.

The priest of the Dublin Diocese said that any society that takes children’s rights seriously could not continue to turn its back on the abuse and neglect of children in St Patrick’s Institution.  

Fr Enright said they are already seriously concerned that the Prison Inspector’s report is, “slipping off the public agenda like so many reports before it, from Whitaker 30 years ago to their own just two years ago.”

He highlighted that the prison chaplains singled out St Patrick’s Institution for particular mention in their annual report of 2010, describing it as a, “warehouse for young people many of whom were broken by childhood experiences.”

At the time, they also spoke of a, “harsh punitive system,” where young people had a, “demoralising, destructive and dehumanising experience; [a system] with few redeeming features characterised by idleness and boredom for young people who are full of energy.”

Judge Michael Reilly’s report described a bullying, fearful, degrading and intimidatory culture in St Patrick’s. He accused the centre of violating or ignoring the human rights of some prisoners, including children, and warned that some, “vulnerable,” young adult prisoners are being targeted.

The Inspector of Prisons found child prisoners were being forcibly moved to isolation cells using head and arm lock control and restraint methods instead of walking the prisoner. He criticised the drug culture, lack of a proper management structure, and deficient record keeping, as well as forcible stripping of young prisoners.

Some of St Patrick’s 198 prison officers, “by their physical and other actions, intimidate and instil fear into prisoners and in particular into those who could be classed as the most vulnerable,” Judge Reilly found.

Elsewhere he reported that these prison officers, “bully prisoners. They provoke retaliation in prisoners, which results in … disciplinary measures being taken.”  

One 18-year-old being held in a special observation cell had been in, “virtual 24-hour lock-up,” for two months.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s, Today with Pat Kenny, Fr Peter McVerry, SJ, said Judge Reilly’s report findings were not “news to him. That is what is so shocking about it. In 1985, the Whitaker Report called for St Patrick’s Institution to be closed as a matter of urgency, that you could not rehabilitate young people in that environment,” the Jesuit said.

He added that a succession of reports had been damning about St Patrick’s, which can hold up to 231 prisoners aged 16 to 21, from the EU Commission’s CPT report to the Ombudsman for Children's report.

“People are just numbers,” he said of St Patrick's and added, “We are talking about very difficult and therefore, very damaged young people. The question is, do you treat them with the same lack of respect that they have treated other people. If we do, then we just prolong the vicious cycle and they will come out more alienated, more angry and more determined to get their own back on society.”

Asked about whether the young prisoners detained in St Patrick’s should be moved to Oberstown, Fr McVerry said it was not just about bricks and mortar.

“Ultimately it is about the relationship between staff and prisoners, and staff who are trained and experienced in dealing with what are admittedly very difficult behaviours,” he said. 

“In Oberstown and Trinity House you have equally difficult young people but the relationships there work much better.”  

He acknowledged that there are, “some terrific prison officers in St Patrick’s,” and that that didn’t come across in the report, “because the focus is on the small number who have been abusive.”

“There are some terrific officers who will really care for young people.  However, the culture in St Patrick’s is one of fear.”  

He warned that there is a huge amount of intimidation and bullying from prisoner to prisoner but also, as highlighted in the report, an intimidation of prisoners by prison officers.