Is prison the right place for one of Ireland’s most dangerous inmates?

Is prison the right place for one of Ireland’s most dangerous inmates?

Reader's Blog: Eviction of family from farm in Strokestown must be a wake-up call | IrishExaminer.com

Reader's Blog: Eviction of family from farm in Strokestown must be a wake-up call | IrishExaminer.com

State operates under a veil of secrecy

State operates under a veil of secrecy

Residents of Meath village unite to stop drug dealers | IrishExaminer.com

Residents of Meath village unite to stop drug dealers | IrishExaminer.com

Brother of Martin 'The General' Cahill urges young criminals to ignore the road designed for them

Brother of Martin 'The General' Cahill urges young criminals to ignore the road designed for them: A former criminal and the brother of notorious Dublin gangland boss Martin 'The General' Cahill has urged young criminals to reflect on the fact that by entering criminality they are often merely going down a road designed for them.

Brother of Martin 'The General' Cahill urges young criminals to ignore the road designed for them

Brother of Martin 'The General' Cahill urges young criminals to ignore the road designed for them: A former criminal and the brother of notorious Dublin gangland boss Martin 'The General' Cahill has urged young criminals to reflect on the fact that by entering criminality they are often merely going down a road designed for them.

Judgment in slopping out case could have 'huge consequences', State argues

Judgment in slopping out case could have 'huge consequences', State argues: Any finding by the Supreme Court that slopping out amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment would have “huge” consequences for the State and the Mountjoy prison regime, the State has said.

Rapist wins right to pension in jail

Rapist wins right to pension in jail: Landmark ruling could lead to other claims for welfare payments

State operates under a veil of secrecy

State operates under a veil of secrecy: Minister for Finance Michael Noonan kept batting away requests for the truth on the IBRC/Siteserv deal for more than six months through the course of 19 parliamentary questions.

Defendant attacked house over drugs debt

Defendant attacked house over drugs debt: A householder reacted quickly when a man tried to set fire to the front door because of a drugs debt.

Stardust fire families find fresh evidence to petition for new case

Stardust fire families find fresh evidence to petition for new case: 48 young people died in the popular nightclub in Artane, Dublin, on Valentine’s Day in 1981.

Truth is out there: Who picks up the tab for ‘campaign of calumny’ against Maurice McCabe?

Truth is out there: Who picks up the tab for ‘campaign of calumny’ against Maurice McCabe?: Michael Clifford Taxpayers will probably foot the bill for ‘campaign of calumny’ against Maurice McCabe, writes Michael Clifford.

Probe into shredding of Callinan’s ‘personal papers’

Probe into shredding of Callinan’s ‘personal papers’: Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has ordered an examination into the shredding of “personal papers”

CervicalCheck scandal victim attacks ex-HSE boss over media comments

CervicalCheck scandal victim attacks ex-HSE boss over media comments: The Galway woman is one of the more than 220 women affected by failures in the CervicalCheck screening system.

Garda HR chief told of bid to ‘go after’ McCabe, says file given to tribunal

Garda HR chief told of bid to ‘go after’ McCabe, says file given to tribunal: A member of Garda management told the force’s head of human resources, John Barrett, that there would be an attempt to target Sgt Maurice McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission, according to documents submitted to the Charleton Tribunal.

Publication of the Sixth Report of the Implementation Oversight Group | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

Publication of the Sixth Report of the Implementation Oversight Group | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

State must be held to account on disabilities, Equality Commission urges

State must be held to account on disabilities, Equality Commission urges: The State must be held to account on its approach to the rights of people with disabilities, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has urged.ABOUT TIME.

Defendant attacked house over drugs debt

Defendant attacked house over drugs debt: A householder reacted quickly when a man tried to set fire to the front door because of a drugs debt.

Inmate deaths lead to call for culture change

Inmate deaths lead to call for culture change: The concerns highlighted by two prison inspectors on proper records being kept by officers appears to be falling on deaf ears within the service, writes Joe Leogue

50 years ago today The Northern Irish Troubles began

50 years ago today The Northern Irish Troubles began: On October 5, 1968, everything changed. I was fifteen years old living 25 miles from the Irish border and Northern Ireland might as well have been in Africa for all most people knew or cared about it.

"Ordinary Joe Soap"- The Roscommon farmer who wants to be Ireland's President

"Ordinary Joe Soap"- The Roscommon farmer who wants to be Ireland's President: Farmer John Groarke from Co Roscommon has said he would like to be President of Ireland and challenge incumbent Michael D Higgins for the spot.

"Ordinary Joe Soap"- The Roscommon farmer who wants to be Ireland's President

"Ordinary Joe Soap"- The Roscommon farmer who wants to be Ireland's President: Farmer John Groarke from Co Roscommon has said he would like to be President of Ireland and challenge incumbent Michael D Higgins for the spot.

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Irish Examiner: 'Inmate deaths lead to call for culture change' | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

Irish Examiner: 'Inmate deaths lead to call for culture change' | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

Irish Examiner: 'Inmate deaths lead to call for culture change' | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

Irish Examiner: 'Inmate deaths lead to call for culture change' | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

ENCOURAGECHANGE.: Social Class Jigsaw Puzzle?

ENCOURAGECHANGE.: Social Class Jigsaw Puzzle?

Social Class Jigsaw Puzzle?

MINOR OFFENCES: PROSECUTED FOR STEALING CANDLES OR CREME EGGS Laoise NeylonLAOISE NEYLONJULY 12, 2017 It was the day before Christmas Eve when Kelly Ann Jennings, a homeless, pregnant woman was arrested and charged with theft – for taking a packet of candles from a church near the Mater Hospital. She was living in a squat at the time and, according to the Herald, she said she took the candles as she “was trying to keep herself safe”. That was in 2014, and the case came before the courts in April of this year. The judge put back sentencing, waiting for a probation report. Anthony O’Connell was also in court in April, accused of stealing three Cadbury Creme Eggs from Lidl on Moore Street, according to the Independent, a charge he denied. The judge expressed surprise that he was there at all. “Three state witnesses, him, a judge and a solicitor, for a Cadbury’s Creme Egg?” Judge Halpin asked, according to the article. O’Connell was before the court again on Monday last, but the case was struck out because the Garda witness didn’t appear. Is prosecuting cases like these a good use of resources? A Garda Press Officer said he couldn’t discuss individual cases, but he spoke generally about how decisions are taken on whether to prosecute for minor offences. “Each case is taken on its merits,” he said. “Gardaí deal every day with vulnerable people and liaise with other agencies in relation to any assistance available.” Who Decides? “The decision to prosecute is a serious one. It can have a lasting effect on both the victim of the crime and the accused person,” said the Garda spokesperson. “Only the DPP or one of his/her lawyers may decide whether to prosecute in serious cases for example, murder, sexual offences or fatal road accidents,” he says. With minor offences, though, the Gardai can take the case themselves. They take it in the name of the DPP, and the DPP can instruct them on how to deal with the case, the spokesperson said. Gardai can also decide to give an adult caution to someone for a minor offence, rather than prosecuting them, but this is usually only for first-time offenders. A first-time offender who does come before the courts for a minor offence will normally get probation if they plead guilty, says Ivana Bacik, a criminologist at Trinity College Dublin. This means they won’t have a criminal record. Garda Discretion Gardaí can and do exercise discretion in deciding whether to bring cases to court, says Bacik. There has been no significant research examining Garda discretion in Ireland, as far as she is aware. But there may be warning signs in the Garda Inspectorate Report on policing from 2015. “There is a strong concern in that report that the Guards aren’t being trained to be consistent in the exercise of powers generally, so that would affect discretion,” she says. In the UK, there is a large body of researching examining policing discretion, she says. There they have found that race was a factor in stop-and-searches, she says. Non-white people were stopped more often, and this resulted in minorities having a disproportionate number of convictions. (A 2009 EU-MIDIS survey in Dublin found that 59 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans reported being stopped by police in the previous 12 months.) That could also be a concern here in terms of the Traveller community, says Fíona Ní Chinnéide, the acting executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. “Certain minority groups are more targeted. You will probably find that Travellers are more policed and then end up with more convictions,” she says. The Garda Press Office didn’t respond to a query about how they can be certain that personal bias doesn’t come into decisions to prosecute for minor offences. Social Class “Social class is undoubtedly a factor in the Irish criminal justice system, and it would be odd if it wasn’t, because it is in every other criminal justice system,” says Bacik who has done research into bias in sentencing. She led a major piece of research in 1998, which looked at the effects of social class, or deprivation, on sentences in the district courts in Ireland. They used the address of the accused person and the deprivation score for that area. “We found that people were much more likely to be sent to prison, for the same offence, if they lived in very deprived areas,” says Bacik. They also found there was a sharp increase in the likelihood of a custodial sentence being handed down when it came to people living in the most deprived areas. “It wasn’t a gradual increase. In fact, what we found was a tipping point. When the level of disadvantage tips into seriously deprived, your risk of imprisonment goes way up,” she says. This was in line with what researchers discovered in the US too, she says. Repeat Minor Offenders The biggest factor in deciding whether someone is prosecuted for a minor offence, is their previous convictions, says Bacik. In the case of persistent repeat minor offenders, there may be some public benefit to prosecuting small crimes, she says. “There is some quite strong evidence that taking a tough line on minor crime does actually have a beneficial effect for neighbourhoods,” Bacik says. If there is an ongoing problem with public order in an area, some prosecutions, and policing that is seen to be effective, can be helpful, says Bacik. (Although there are better ways to tackle public order like public investment, she says.) The big problem isn’t when minor cases go to court, but when they result in custodial sentences, says Bacik. “There are far too many people in jail in Ireland for short sentences for minor non-violent offences. That is where the public good is clearly not being served,” she says. Imprisoning people for minor offences is counter-productive, she says, and we need to tackle disadvantage if that is the cause of the crime. Ní Chinnéide of the Irish Penal Reform Trust says some people who offend have a string of very minor charges, but they are persistently offending and other people are fed up with that, such as shopkeepers or their neighbours. These cases are very different from serious offending, she says. “For people who are living in poverty, a lot of punitive approaches only compound those issues and don’t address the offending behaviour,” she says. Alternative Approaches “There are a range of alternative approaches, but they require investment up front and the political will to do that,” says Ní Chinnéide. The youth justice system is really successful, she says. The Garda Diversion Programme has been working well, according to a 2011 report. The programme aims to support young people not to re-offend, by assigning a garda to the case and putting supports in place that might be educational, or counselling, or recreational activities. Ní Chinnéide would like to see a similar programme rolled out for adults who are involved in minor offences. Although she says, “Judges are not wildly punitive of people with low level of offending”, she would like to see more community-service orders in place. These can be positive, and some even provide an opportunity for the offender to get involved in work, she says. Repeat low-level offenders should be dealt with in a community court, rather than criminal justice court, she says. In community courts, “there may be a punitive element, but it is mainly about putting in place services and treatment to deal with offending behaviour”, she says. Unfortunately, these are expensive to set up, she says. Community courts, restorative justice, mentoring, integrated community service orders, which include treatment for addictions or mental health, these are the way to tackle minor offending, says Ni Chinnéide. There are excellent pilot projects that should be rolled out nationally, says Bacik. One is a restorative justice project, and another is for people with mental-health problems. “An awful lot of the people on recurrent public-order charges actually have psychiatric issues, says Bacik. “There is a pilot diversion project running in Dublin District Court, where the court diverts people to psychiatric services.” This needs to be rolled out nationally, she says.

MINOR OFFENCES: PROSECUTED FOR STEALING CANDLES OR CREME EGGS Laoise NeylonLAOISE NEYLONJULY 12, 2017 It was the day before Christmas Eve when Kelly Ann Jennings, a homeless, pregnant woman was arrested and charged with theft – for taking a packet of candles from a church near the Mater Hospital. She was living in a squat at the time and, according to the Herald, she said she took the candles as she “was trying to keep herself safe”. That was in 2014, and the case came before the courts in April of this year. The judge put back sentencing, waiting for a probation report. Anthony O’Connell was also in court in April, accused of stealing three Cadbury Creme Eggs from Lidl on Moore Street, according to the Independent, a charge he denied. The judge expressed surprise that he was there at all. “Three state witnesses, him, a judge and a solicitor, for a Cadbury’s Creme Egg?” Judge Halpin asked, according to the article. O’Connell was before the court again on Monday last, but the case was struck out because the Garda witness didn’t appear. Is prosecuting cases like these a good use of resources? A Garda Press Officer said he couldn’t discuss individual cases, but he spoke generally about how decisions are taken on whether to prosecute for minor offences. “Each case is taken on its merits,” he said. “Gardaí deal every day with vulnerable people and liaise with other agencies in relation to any assistance available.” Who Decides? “The decision to prosecute is a serious one. It can have a lasting effect on both the victim of the crime and the accused person,” said the Garda spokesperson. “Only the DPP or one of his/her lawyers may decide whether to prosecute in serious cases for example, murder, sexual offences or fatal road accidents,” he says. With minor offences, though, the Gardai can take the case themselves. They take it in the name of the DPP, and the DPP can instruct them on how to deal with the case, the spokesperson said. Gardai can also decide to give an adult caution to someone for a minor offence, rather than prosecuting them, but this is usually only for first-time offenders. A first-time offender who does come before the courts for a minor offence will normally get probation if they plead guilty, says Ivana Bacik, a criminologist at Trinity College Dublin. This means they won’t have a criminal record. Garda Discretion Gardaí can and do exercise discretion in deciding whether to bring cases to court, says Bacik. There has been no significant research examining Garda discretion in Ireland, as far as she is aware. But there may be warning signs in the Garda Inspectorate Report on policing from 2015. “There is a strong concern in that report that the Guards aren’t being trained to be consistent in the exercise of powers generally, so that would affect discretion,” she says. In the UK, there is a large body of researching examining policing discretion, she says. There they have found that race was a factor in stop-and-searches, she says. Non-white people were stopped more often, and this resulted in minorities having a disproportionate number of convictions. (A 2009 EU-MIDIS survey in Dublin found that 59 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans reported being stopped by police in the previous 12 months.) That could also be a concern here in terms of the Traveller community, says Fíona Ní Chinnéide, the acting executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. “Certain minority groups are more targeted. You will probably find that Travellers are more policed and then end up with more convictions,” she says. The Garda Press Office didn’t respond to a query about how they can be certain that personal bias doesn’t come into decisions to prosecute for minor offences. Social Class “Social class is undoubtedly a factor in the Irish criminal justice system, and it would be odd if it wasn’t, because it is in every other criminal justice system,” says Bacik who has done research into bias in sentencing. She led a major piece of research in 1998, which looked at the effects of social class, or deprivation, on sentences in the district courts in Ireland. They used the address of the accused person and the deprivation score for that area. “We found that people were much more likely to be sent to prison, for the same offence, if they lived in very deprived areas,” says Bacik. They also found there was a sharp increase in the likelihood of a custodial sentence being handed down when it came to people living in the most deprived areas. “It wasn’t a gradual increase. In fact, what we found was a tipping point. When the level of disadvantage tips into seriously deprived, your risk of imprisonment goes way up,” she says. This was in line with what researchers discovered in the US too, she says. Repeat Minor Offenders The biggest factor in deciding whether someone is prosecuted for a minor offence, is their previous convictions, says Bacik. In the case of persistent repeat minor offenders, there may be some public benefit to prosecuting small crimes, she says. “There is some quite strong evidence that taking a tough line on minor crime does actually have a beneficial effect for neighbourhoods,” Bacik says. If there is an ongoing problem with public order in an area, some prosecutions, and policing that is seen to be effective, can be helpful, says Bacik. (Although there are better ways to tackle public order like public investment, she says.) The big problem isn’t when minor cases go to court, but when they result in custodial sentences, says Bacik. “There are far too many people in jail in Ireland for short sentences for minor non-violent offences. That is where the public good is clearly not being served,” she says. Imprisoning people for minor offences is counter-productive, she says, and we need to tackle disadvantage if that is the cause of the crime. Ní Chinnéide of the Irish Penal Reform Trust says some people who offend have a string of very minor charges, but they are persistently offending and other people are fed up with that, such as shopkeepers or their neighbours. These cases are very different from serious offending, she says. “For people who are living in poverty, a lot of punitive approaches only compound those issues and don’t address the offending behaviour,” she says. Alternative Approaches “There are a range of alternative approaches, but they require investment up front and the political will to do that,” says Ní Chinnéide. The youth justice system is really successful, she says. The Garda Diversion Programme has been working well, according to a 2011 report. The programme aims to support young people not to re-offend, by assigning a garda to the case and putting supports in place that might be educational, or counselling, or recreational activities. Ní Chinnéide would like to see a similar programme rolled out for adults who are involved in minor offences. Although she says, “Judges are not wildly punitive of people with low level of offending”, she would like to see more community-service orders in place. These can be positive, and some even provide an opportunity for the offender to get involved in work, she says. Repeat low-level offenders should be dealt with in a community court, rather than criminal justice court, she says. In community courts, “there may be a punitive element, but it is mainly about putting in place services and treatment to deal with offending behaviour”, she says. Unfortunately, these are expensive to set up, she says. Community courts, restorative justice, mentoring, integrated community service orders, which include treatment for addictions or mental health, these are the way to tackle minor offending, says Ni Chinnéide. There are excellent pilot projects that should be rolled out nationally, says Bacik. One is a restorative justice project, and another is for people with mental-health problems. “An awful lot of the people on recurrent public-order charges actually have psychiatric issues, says Bacik. “There is a pilot diversion project running in Dublin District Court, where the court diverts people to psychiatric services.” This needs to be rolled out nationally, she says.

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EncourageChange's Bookmarks on Delicious

EncourageChange's Bookmarks on Delicious

Blog | Ivana Bacik

Blog | Ivana Bacik

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Limerick councillor charged with public order offences after night in custody

Limerick councillor charged with public order offences after night in custody: A LIMERICK councillor arrested over a public order offence this weekend has claimed gardai hit him with a baton, leaving him with a head injury. Independent City West member John Loftus – who spent Saturday night in a cell at Roxboro station – says he will refer officers t...

Should judges be required to publicly declare their interests?

Should judges be required to publicly declare their interests?: Should judges should be obliged to make annual declarations of interests – such as property, gifts, land, and shares – in much the same way as TDs and Senators already do? Minister Shane Ross thinks so.

From scumbag to student': The power of prison education A former prisoner, who went from drug dealer to master’s student, has called for more funding for education in prisons. He admitted it will be “a hard sell”. Sunday 25 May 2014 08:00 16,528 54 TheJournal.ie Source: Shutterstock MICHAEL* COMPLETED HIS Leaving Certificate while serving a four-year drugs-related sentence in a Dublin prison. “I’d never done [the Leaving Cert]. It was just a personal thing, I wanted to see if I had applied myself in school. I always wondered ‘Could I have done it?’ I found out I could.” Michael said achieving this “set the ball rolling” in terms of his education. He now has a master’s degree. He initially started to go to the prison’s school to simply get the chance to have conversations with people removed from prison life. He said he owes a lot to his teachers, who were “separate from the prison officers” and treated him “like a human being, not a prisoner”. “I didn’t know it at the time, but each [teacher] was there at the right time,” he recalled. I had a bad experience of school. It was ‘get down, shut, up.’ College was never an option for me. Motivation? I didn’t even know what it was. Michael said school in prison was different for him as the teachers there “value your opinion and encourage you to read”. He also completed a number of FETAC courses while inside. As a result of his own experience, Michael knows first-hand how important education can be in stopping criminals re-offending or ending up homeless. He said that many people return to crime when they are released as they cannot read or write and have little chance of getting work – something exacerbated by having to tell potential employers about any previous convictions. Michael said he understands why the Irish Prison Service’s education budget has been cut but is concerned about the long-term implications. He is also aware that many people will not care a huge deal about the issue. If you said to me ‘prison education or Crumlin hospital’, I know who I’d give my money to. “I had a passion for [education] and it turned my life around. My life is totally different now to the life I had ten years ago.” Not least, it helped him get clean. When in prison, Michael attended school from 10am – 12pm and 2 pm – 4 pm, Monday to Friday. However, if a prison officer was out sick, “access to the school was one of first things to be cut”. “Education doesn’t get the priority it deserves [in prison],” he stated. ‘Red thumbs’ There were about 12 men in his class, some of whom were studying for the Leaving Certificate and others for the Junior Certificate. ”There was a fairly good completion rate, the teachers had a fairly captive audience,” he joked. To this day, he remains in touch with some of the teachers he credits with changing his life. “They’re proud of me, but not half as proud my mother.” TheJournal.ie Source: Shutterstock He admitted that calling for greater educational resources in prisons is “never going to be popular”. I can see the red thumbs on TheJournal.ie now. They give out about people re-offending and the cost to the taxpayer, but if you intervene early and put the bit of effort in, it can make a real difference. Is prison for retribution or rehabilitation? What good is locking them away and treating them like an animal? They might be strung out on drugs, from a broken family. I’m not playing the poor mouth ‘my mother never loved me’ line but it’s true. Michael added that prison is about network-building and if those on the inside aren’t educated, this will foster more crime on the outside. “For me its a no-brainer, but it’s a very tough sell.” If you put a bit of effort into someone, instead of being identified as a prisoner or a scumbag, they’re a student. He noted that many of the men he knows who received an education in prison go back to their communities upon their release and work in drugs rehabilitation centres and youth clubs. Michael said there will “always be a stigma” associated to an ex-prisoner but noted that this changes over time, albeit slowly. There are currently 13 vacancies for prison-based workshop or training posts nationally, six of which are in Midlands Prison. ADVERTISEMENT Each prison has a library. Opening hours range from an ‘on demand’ service in certain institutions to 77 hours a week in Portlaoise Prison. Most other prison libraries operate from seven to 37.5 hours weekly. ‘A scandal’ Dr Kevin Warner was the Education Coordinator in the Irish prison system for nearly 30 years until 2009. He has also worked in Europe and North America, and founded the European Prison Education Association. He is a board member of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. Relative to the overall cost of the prison system, education is minor really, but it has been cut disproportionately in recent years in relation to other activities. Warner said there are more than 300 individuals teaching in Irish prison, the equivalent of about 220 full-time staff. Dr Warner noted that the Irish Prison Service, which falls under the remit of the Department of Justice, has said it costs about €65,000-70,000 to keep a single prisoner locked up for a year. He thinks this is an underestimate, saying the real figure is probably closer to €80,000 and “very high by international standards”. This still marks a significant drop from €97,700 per prisoner per year – the cost in 2007. Dr Warner said the decrease is partly due to a change in the calculation method, and not including certain expenses such as teaching and prison maintenance. In 2008, €220,539 was spent by the IPS on Open University courses, when 108 prisoners availed of the offer. This figure was reduced to €100,000 in 2011 – where it still stands. Some 36 prisoners from Ireland’s 14 prisons are pursuing OU courses at present. “You’ve spent all this money to lock them up in a destructive environment, if they’re ready for something like Open University it should be there for them.” ‘Phasing out higher education’ Dr Warner believes the only reason the initiative wasn’t scrapped entirely is because a number of prisoners threatened legal action. In 2011, an art course that was facilitated by the National College of Art and Design and ran in Portlaoise Prison from 1987 onwards was terminated. “They’re clearly phasing out higher education in prisons.” Dr Warner said such harsh cutbacks are “a scandal” as prison education is of “enormous benefit to prisoners and also to society”. TheJournal.ie Source: Shutterstock He said there has never been any problem getting prisoners to engage with education, citing access as the main issue. During his three decades working in the Irish prison education system, he saw first-hand how it could make “a big difference to a lot of people”. Education gives people a different sense of themselves, a different view on life. It changes their perspective on themselves and the wider world. He added that it helps prisoners “cope with sentences” and affords them an opportunity to “get away from the landing where the talk is all about drugs”. “They think: ‘I can tell my parents and my partner about this, it’s something I’m proud of.’” About 1,057 prisoners are doing FETAC-accredited vocational training courses in a wide range of areas such as computers, woodwork, braille and horticulture. Dr Warner said these courses are valuable but somewhat pointless if prisoners don’t have any where to progress to. “If people get beyond the level of FETAC and beyond the level of the Leaving Certificate, there should be third level education options available to them. There’s no point doing FETAC courses if you’re way beyond that level.” He noted that some prisoners are not interested in the type of certificate they receive, if any, adding that they want to learn for the sake of learning itself. “I don’t think there’s any doubt [education] does help people not to re-offend.” Dr Warner said that there needs to be a shift in the public’s opinion of prisoners. If people start with a distorted image of prison and a distorted image of the people in prison, it’s very hard [to change their minds]. People need to accept that prison damages people severely, in all sorts of ways. Education can limit that damage and help them survive prison. Some people think they’re all ‘scum’ like the tabloid headlines say … it’s not true. Only a minority of prisoners are violent. Most people in prison are as much sinned against as sinners. They have problems. We’re not absolving them, but they need to be seen as people with as much good and bad in them as the rest of us. If they’re locked up they should still have the opportunity to develop.

From scumbag to student': The power of prison education A former prisoner, who went from drug dealer to master’s student, has called for more funding for education in prisons. He admitted it will be “a hard sell”. Sunday 25 May 2014 08:00 16,528 54 TheJournal.ie Source: Shutterstock MICHAEL* COMPLETED HIS Leaving Certificate while serving a four-year drugs-related sentence in a Dublin prison. “I’d never done [the Leaving Cert]. It was just a personal thing, I wanted to see if I had applied myself in school. I always wondered ‘Could I have done it?’ I found out I could.” Michael said achieving this “set the ball rolling” in terms of his education. He now has a master’s degree. He initially started to go to the prison’s school to simply get the chance to have conversations with people removed from prison life. He said he owes a lot to his teachers, who were “separate from the prison officers” and treated him “like a human being, not a prisoner”. “I didn’t know it at the time, but each [teacher] was there at the right time,” he recalled. I had a bad experience of school. It was ‘get down, shut, up.’ College was never an option for me. Motivation? I didn’t even know what it was. Michael said school in prison was different for him as the teachers there “value your opinion and encourage you to read”. He also completed a number of FETAC courses while inside. As a result of his own experience, Michael knows first-hand how important education can be in stopping criminals re-offending or ending up homeless. He said that many people return to crime when they are released as they cannot read or write and have little chance of getting work – something exacerbated by having to tell potential employers about any previous convictions. Michael said he understands why the Irish Prison Service’s education budget has been cut but is concerned about the long-term implications. He is also aware that many people will not care a huge deal about the issue. If you said to me ‘prison education or Crumlin hospital’, I know who I’d give my money to. “I had a passion for [education] and it turned my life around. My life is totally different now to the life I had ten years ago.” Not least, it helped him get clean. When in prison, Michael attended school from 10am – 12pm and 2 pm – 4 pm, Monday to Friday. However, if a prison officer was out sick, “access to the school was one of first things to be cut”. “Education doesn’t get the priority it deserves [in prison],” he stated. ‘Red thumbs’ There were about 12 men in his class, some of whom were studying for the Leaving Certificate and others for the Junior Certificate. ”There was a fairly good completion rate, the teachers had a fairly captive audience,” he joked. To this day, he remains in touch with some of the teachers he credits with changing his life. “They’re proud of me, but not half as proud my mother.” TheJournal.ie Source: Shutterstock He admitted that calling for greater educational resources in prisons is “never going to be popular”. I can see the red thumbs on TheJournal.ie now. They give out about people re-offending and the cost to the taxpayer, but if you intervene early and put the bit of effort in, it can make a real difference. Is prison for retribution or rehabilitation? What good is locking them away and treating them like an animal? They might be strung out on drugs, from a broken family. I’m not playing the poor mouth ‘my mother never loved me’ line but it’s true. Michael added that prison is about network-building and if those on the inside aren’t educated, this will foster more crime on the outside. “For me its a no-brainer, but it’s a very tough sell.” If you put a bit of effort into someone, instead of being identified as a prisoner or a scumbag, they’re a student. He noted that many of the men he knows who received an education in prison go back to their communities upon their release and work in drugs rehabilitation centres and youth clubs. Michael said there will “always be a stigma” associated to an ex-prisoner but noted that this changes over time, albeit slowly. There are currently 13 vacancies for prison-based workshop or training posts nationally, six of which are in Midlands Prison. ADVERTISEMENT Each prison has a library. Opening hours range from an ‘on demand’ service in certain institutions to 77 hours a week in Portlaoise Prison. Most other prison libraries operate from seven to 37.5 hours weekly. ‘A scandal’ Dr Kevin Warner was the Education Coordinator in the Irish prison system for nearly 30 years until 2009. He has also worked in Europe and North America, and founded the European Prison Education Association. He is a board member of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. Relative to the overall cost of the prison system, education is minor really, but it has been cut disproportionately in recent years in relation to other activities. Warner said there are more than 300 individuals teaching in Irish prison, the equivalent of about 220 full-time staff. Dr Warner noted that the Irish Prison Service, which falls under the remit of the Department of Justice, has said it costs about €65,000-70,000 to keep a single prisoner locked up for a year. He thinks this is an underestimate, saying the real figure is probably closer to €80,000 and “very high by international standards”. This still marks a significant drop from €97,700 per prisoner per year – the cost in 2007. Dr Warner said the decrease is partly due to a change in the calculation method, and not including certain expenses such as teaching and prison maintenance. In 2008, €220,539 was spent by the IPS on Open University courses, when 108 prisoners availed of the offer. This figure was reduced to €100,000 in 2011 – where it still stands. Some 36 prisoners from Ireland’s 14 prisons are pursuing OU courses at present. “You’ve spent all this money to lock them up in a destructive environment, if they’re ready for something like Open University it should be there for them.” ‘Phasing out higher education’ Dr Warner believes the only reason the initiative wasn’t scrapped entirely is because a number of prisoners threatened legal action. In 2011, an art course that was facilitated by the National College of Art and Design and ran in Portlaoise Prison from 1987 onwards was terminated. “They’re clearly phasing out higher education in prisons.” Dr Warner said such harsh cutbacks are “a scandal” as prison education is of “enormous benefit to prisoners and also to society”. TheJournal.ie Source: Shutterstock He said there has never been any problem getting prisoners to engage with education, citing access as the main issue. During his three decades working in the Irish prison education system, he saw first-hand how it could make “a big difference to a lot of people”. Education gives people a different sense of themselves, a different view on life. It changes their perspective on themselves and the wider world. He added that it helps prisoners “cope with sentences” and affords them an opportunity to “get away from the landing where the talk is all about drugs”. “They think: ‘I can tell my parents and my partner about this, it’s something I’m proud of.’” About 1,057 prisoners are doing FETAC-accredited vocational training courses in a wide range of areas such as computers, woodwork, braille and horticulture. Dr Warner said these courses are valuable but somewhat pointless if prisoners don’t have any where to progress to. “If people get beyond the level of FETAC and beyond the level of the Leaving Certificate, there should be third level education options available to them. There’s no point doing FETAC courses if you’re way beyond that level.” He noted that some prisoners are not interested in the type of certificate they receive, if any, adding that they want to learn for the sake of learning itself. “I don’t think there’s any doubt [education] does help people not to re-offend.” Dr Warner said that there needs to be a shift in the public’s opinion of prisoners. If people start with a distorted image of prison and a distorted image of the people in prison, it’s very hard [to change their minds]. People need to accept that prison damages people severely, in all sorts of ways. Education can limit that damage and help them survive prison. Some people think they’re all ‘scum’ like the tabloid headlines say … it’s not true. Only a minority of prisoners are violent. Most people in prison are as much sinned against as sinners. They have problems. We’re not absolving them, but they need to be seen as people with as much good and bad in them as the rest of us. If they’re locked up they should still have the opportunity to develop.

Should judges be required to publicly declare their interests?

Should judges be required to publicly declare their interests?: Should judges should be obliged to make annual declarations of interests – such as property, gifts, land, and shares – in much the same way as TDs and Senators already do? Minister Shane Ross thinks so.yes as should an garda Siochana.

Findings of Mountjoy Visiting Committee Report of serious concern | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

Findings of Mountjoy Visiting Committee Report of serious concern | Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT)

Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults - Ireland's Health Service

Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults - Ireland's Health Service

USAID and Wall Street: conflicts, coups, and conquest

USAID and Wall Street: conflicts, coups, and conquest: In 1928 when the US-based United Fruit Company – now known as Chiquita Brands International – faced labor issues in Columbia, it had at its disposal Colombian troops which gunned down hundreds of strikers to maintain production and profits.Ensuring that Columbia protected “American interests” was the US State Department who hosted company representatives at the US embassy in Bogotá, which in turn was in contact with Washington.