The training unit in Mountjoy Jail has been reduced to a holding centre for prisoners trying to remain drug-free, according to a new report.
The European Social Fund (ESF) evaluation unit report says the training centre has not been reviewed since it was set up 24 years ago. It adds that the unit, which receives funds from the ESF, does not provide adequate training.
The report is based on interviews with 70 prisoners, prison staff and officials at the Department of Justice. The fund has allocated more than £750,000 for 1998 and 1999 to improve prison training in the unit, according to the ESF. This money is also earmarked for creating "links to supports and job placement in the community".
The report recommends the introduction of vocational guidance, a review of training, pre-vocational and non-skills training, additional staff for the unit, therapy for recovering addicts, staff training and the development of training for women prisoners.
The training unit, which is a separate part of Mountjoy, was designated drug-free in 1996, catering for those who complete an eight-week detox programme in the main prison.
Of the 76 people who came to the unit through the prison detox programme, almost half were returned to Mountjoy after an average of eight weeks. Thirty-four per cent of those returned had failed a urine analysis, most testing positive for heroin. The remainder were returned for "discipline reasons", for trial on further charges.
There was little preparation for release, the report said. "There is no vocational guidance provision and a lack of linkage to mainstream placement services, training agencies or community-based activity."
The unit had the "conflicting objectives of drug rehabilitation and vocational training", it added, with no additional resources allocated to cater for the needs of recovering addicts.
