An in-house 'listener' service offered by trained detainees is proving a great success, writes PAMELA DUNCAN
AS WELL as providing a support service in six of Dublin’s seven prisons, the Samaritans have also set up listener schemes, which are in operation in three Dublin prisons – Mountjoy, Arbour Hill and Wheatfield.
The scheme involves prisoners being trained by the Samaritans to become “listeners”, providing an in-prison service to their fellow inmates.
Mountjoy chief officer Patrick Gavigan says prisoners can be vulnerable, removed as they are from their support networks on the outside.
“It’s the loss of liberty, loss of freedom, removed from their family and loved ones and confined to their cell . . . it can be soul-destroying for people. They have a lot of time and things can play on their minds and as a consequence of that they can turn into themselves and can become a bit depressed and withdrawn and can cause harm to themselves or even suicide,” he says.
Prisoners who wish to use the listener scheme contact a member of staff between 8pm and 8am. The listener and his fellow prisoner are then brought to a listening suite, a neutral room where they can talk uninterrupted and unsupervised.
“Confidentiality is the rock on which the whole system works,” says Hector MacLennan, one of the governors in Mountjoy, adding that there is no requirement on the listener to give any feedback to the prison service as to what transpires during the sessions.
To become listeners, prisoners are vetted by staff – eligible prisoners are those who have served part of their sentence and are seen to be of good character.
There are seven listeners among a prison population of 634, while another 10 are being trained. In 2009 there were more than 200 formal call-outs to listeners in Mountjoy, although there is also an informal aspect to the service.
Those who provide the service are ordinary prisoners who volunteer their time, sometimes getting up in the middle of the night to listen to their fellow prisoners, for no material reward.
“There’s no remuneration, there’s no time off, there’s no temporary release or inducement of any description . . . but they get a lot from it themselves insofar as they get an inner sense of achievement and satisfaction from being able to help someone else,” Gavigan says.
However, the impact of the scheme is palpable. “It’s a great success and universally accepted as being of huge value to the prison,” MacLennan says.
“Anything that can help prisoners adjust or help them out in terms of their feeling lonely or depressed, it’s obviously going to be of assistance to the prisoner and to the assistance of staff and management.”