BACKGROUND:Recently voiced fears by the outgoing prison governor now appear well founded, writes CONOR LALLY
WHEN KATHLEEN McMahon decided to leave her position as governor of the women’s Dóchas Centre jail in Dublin’s Mountjoy complex last month, she did not go quietly.
She gave an interview to The Irish Timesin which she said her position had been made impossible by disrespectful senior figures in the Irish Prison Service who had failed to consult her on key issues.
Ms McMahon said the regime at the Dóchas Centre had been originally designed to treat women with dignity and respect, aimed at their successful reintegration into society on release.
However, the centre was now so overcrowded that that progressive regime was being cannibalised. She feared the facility would regress to one characterised by self mutilation, bullying and depression.
When she was governor, Ms McMahon said she and her staff made every effort to ensure arrangements, including accommodation, were put in place for vulnerable women who were about to be released.
Releases were often discreetly stalled when women revealed they had nowhere to go. Ms McMahon doubted if the prison service wanted this women-centred approach to continue and she feared it was about to be lost.
The latest case of a mentally ill homeless woman being released against her will just four weeks into a six-month sentence suggests some of Ms McMahon’s fears are already coming to pass.
The case reveals much of the chaos now evident across parts of the increasingly dysfunctional prison system. It is a system into which the mentally ill are still being imprisoned, and where prisoners just weeks into sentences are being released early. In the latest case it was the Irish Prison Service, and not staff, that ordered the woman’s early release. It seems to have been insisted upon by prison service officials.
When the release so spectacularly backfired and gardaí were called in, the Irish Prison Service decided it was prison staff that needed a lesson on how such early releases should be handled.
It sent instructions to staff, via prison governors, reminding them that the early release of any inmate poses “public safety” risks. The new guidelines remind governors that in cases of mentally ill prisoners, mental health staff at prisons must be consulted before any early release.
Inmates recently kept in observation cells are not to be considered for release. The circular also states that if the guidelines are followed, preparations can be made for mentally ill prisoners to be cared for in the community.
It is a wonder that the service did not follow its own instructions in this case.