A report is highly critical of conditions in Mountjoy Prison and says the wrong people are in prison.
A Mountjoy Prison Visiting Committee report has described the country's largest jail as a bleak, antiquated instution where conditions are deplorable.
The report, which has not yet been published, but has been seen by RTÉ News, recommends urgent reform at the jail. The Visiting Committee Report also says that the wrong people are in prison.
One in three of those locked up are in for not paying fines.
One hundred prisoners are described as mentally ill requiring hospital care. Some of these prisoners are locked up in padded cells 24 hours a day.
The report says that the Central Mental Hospital operates a barter system with Mountjoy by taking in one mentally ill patient and sending another one back to the jail.
Valerie Bresnihan of the Penal Reform Trust points out that the vast majority of prisoners are aged between 18 and 26 and describes the treatment of mentally ill prisoners as atrocious.
The report also points to the inadequate prison drugs strategy and identifies that many prisoners returning from temporary release bring large quantities of drugs with them. Medical care is also inadequate and there is a problem with mice and cockroaches.
The report did however praise prison staff for preventing suicides and found that the kitchen is as good as any hotel. It also commends the use of the metal shop, the carpentry shop and the laundry.
In response to criticisms of the prison, the Department of Justice says that the opening of Castlerea Prison later in the week will go some way to alleviating the overcrowding at Mountjoy.
As little or no action was taken on the back of last years report, the committee believes that its work is a cosmetic exercise. They believe that nobody is listening to the criticisms.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 3 May 1998. The reporter is Paul Reynolds.
