A PLAYGROUND at a Co Mayo special school which was made by inmates at Wheatfield Prison has been praised in the latest annual report by the prison visiting committee.
The playground equipment was manufactured over a year at the prison and installed over a weekend. The project earned Wheatfield a nomination for the 1996 Community Services Award.
Other beneficiaries of the prison's work and training programme included children's hospitals in Dublin, the Alzheimer Society and the Bosnian refugees at Cherry Orchard hospital.
The committee also commended the prison's kitchens for winning the Irish Quality Association's hygiene award for the third year running. It said the standards of food storage and production were a source of pride to staff and inmates.
Some 202 inmates enrolled for education at the prison during 1995, of which 37 per cent attended for more than half the working week. The committee was satisfied with the level of enrolment but said the high turnover of students due to releases and transfers made long-term education difficult.
The report notes that, based on issues raised by prisoners, a working group was established to draw up proposals for a prison drug treatment programme. The proposals were forwarded to the Department of Justice.
Wheatfield was built in 1988 and holds 320 men, mostly young adults. The site has also been earmarked for the new remand prison.
