Dáil Eireann - 29/Jun/1960 Criminal Justice Bill, 1960—Second Stage (Resumed).

Dáil Eireann - 29/Jun/1960 Criminal Justice Bill, 1960—Second Stage (Resumed).: There are few Deputies who are not personally, or at least vicariously, familiar with the insides of prisons. Many of our colleagues have been inside as prisoners. Some of us have heard at second hand of conditions within prisons. Others of us accepted the prudent discipline of visiting the prisons when we became legislators so that we might have a clear knowledge of what we were doing if we legislated in such a way as to make it possible to imprison our neighbour. I visited all the prisons in this country, Borstal, the reformatories and some of the industrial schools. One has always to bear in mind that, for anybody entering a penal institution of any kind for the first time, there is always the possibility that he may experience a certain feeling of shock. But, having recovered from that, it is, I think, the duty of all legislators to attempt at least to take an objective and a charitable view of the circumstances of people upon whom the misfortune of imprisonment has fallen.?