It is a truism that a good test of a society's character is the way it runs its prisons and closed institutions. By that criterion Ireland's track-record is hardly the most reassuring. There is ample evidence over recent times of what went on behind the high walls of Irish orphanages and other institutions supposedly dedicated to the welfare of the young and the vulnerable.
The Irish prison system has rarely been the subject of accusations of deliberate abuse or wanton cruelty. By and large, the prisons have been run and staffed by personnel whose instincts are humane and tolerant. The accusations of deliberate ill-treatment of some prisoners at Mountjoy some years ago were unusual, perhaps to the point of being exceptional. The shortcomings of the Irish prison system have rather tended to be institutional. Services have been inadequate, building stock has been poor, there has been a gathering crisis of accommodation and numbers. And the prisons as a whole have operated for many years within a criminal justice system which lacked an overall vision or set of policies.
There are positive signs of change. The hiving off of control from the Department of Justice and the appointment of a director of the prisons service are in line with practice in advanced penal systems. The building programme and the re-generation of existing stock are gradually giving inmates decent accommodation with basic sanitary facilities. Additional space and accommodation will provide opportunities to improve education and training as well as alleviating overcrowding. But serious shortcomings remain. Health care, especially psychiatric care and counselling, often falls well short of what is necessary. Training for employment - indispensible if there is to be rehabilitation - varies enormously from one institution to the next. Above all, there is the festering, human-warehouse of Mountjoy; outdated, overcrowded, riddled with drugs.
Thus, when the Minister for Justice gives a compte rendu of the prisons, as he did on Tuesday, he can justifiably claim to be making some progress. But he cannot show a system which will make the outside world sit up in admiration of what the Celtic Tiger is doing for those who fall to the bottom of the heap. Mr O'Donoghue is striking what he hopes will be the right electoral note in promising that the "revolving door" syndrome will end and that the long-awaited bail laws will come into effect in the autumn. There will also be a broad welcome for his declaration that there will be no early release for offenders who have committed acts of violence against the vulnerable members of society. But if the Minister's timing is politically advantageous, these announcements sit uneasily with the process of consultation and research which he himself initiated and which has been in train over the past two years.
Because there has been no coherent, long-term policy on criminal justice for so many years in this State, the prisons have for long had to operate on an ad hoc basis. On taking up office Mr O'Donoghue initiated a process of consultation throughout the community on what its criminal justice priorities should be. This, it was announced, would lead to a plan or paper which set out long-term policies. Mr O'Donoghue appears to be pre-empting that process in considerable degree. It may be good politics with local and European elections little more than a week away. But it is not what he said he would do.