The Governor of Mountjoy On Society's Contribution to Crime
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Thursday February 27, 2003 21:11
by E. Commins
elishacommins at netscape dot net
Galway
087-9317233
On March 8th this year John Lonergan will be 35 years in prison. For 20 of those years he has been Governor of Mountjoy, Ireland’s largest prison.
Speaking at NUI, Galway Mr. Lonergan criticised the government’s reactionary focus to crime and pointed out that the recent violence in Limerick city was inevitable saying: ‘You cannot segregate crime and criminality from the rest of society. It’s a very complex issue which links to social and economic circumstances.’
‘It’s no coincidence’, says Lonergan ‘that 75% of the Dublin-born prisoners in Mountjoy come from six tiny pockets in Dublin, all drug-infested, unemployment-infested and all disadvantaged.’
Broader societal issues such as housing have a huge impact according to Mr. Lonergan who condemns the way we have fragmented our urban society by allowing areas to be developed and sustained as ghettos.
Lonergan is also critical of the lack of support services for families in stress and the inflexibility of the education system.
Further damning statistics on Mountjoy include the staggering 25% of prisoners who have a history of in-patient care in a psychiatric hospital. There’s a lot of mental illness in Irish prisons according to Lonergan who says: ‘In no other sector of society would you find this level of mental illness.’
Challenging the perception that everyone in prison is vicious or bad he says ‘there are about 500-600 dangerous people in prison, murderers, rapists and some psychiatric or disturbed prisoners who shouldn’t even be there.’
‘But the rest are good people in many ways’, he says. At the moment the prisoners are doing a huge amount of work for the Special Olympics, making bath-towels and flags for the opening ceremony.
He spoke also of the fund-raising efforts of the prisoners last October when they organised a marathon in the exercise yard. Prisoners receive a 1 euro gratuity per day. From this they raised 1,400 euro from each other for Temple Street Hospital.
Criticising the current rightwing approach in favour of longer, tougher sentences Lonergan says he is ‘a firm believer in keeping people out of prison at all costs. Very few prisoners come out after ten years reasonably ok. In fact, many are very seriously psychologically damaged as a result.’
While we do have to have a prison system for the 500-600 very dangerous people he remains adamant that prison is not a deterrent. ‘For 96-97% of the population the stigmatisation of doing something wrong in the community is a deterrent’, he says. ‘ But for the rest of the population going to prison for some kids is same as going to college for others.’
Contrary to the view of the mass media the law certainly doesn’t favour the criminal. 75% of prisoners in Mountjoy plead guilty. ‘They wouldn’t be doing so if the law was in their favour’, he says.
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8The so-called 'excluded' are as much a part of the system as the corrupt circle of greed who are endlessly investigated by commission after commission, yet never spend a day in gaol.
In a study, 259 male felon parolees of the California Department of Connections who learned the Transcendental Meditation technique while in prison had fewer new prison terms and more favourable parole outcomes each year over a five-year period after release compared to carefully matched controls. The Transcendental Meditation program was shown to significantly reduce recidivism during a period of six months to six years after parole, whereas prison education, vocational training, and psychotherapy did not consistently reduce recidivism.
References:
Journal of Criminal Justice 15 (1987): 211–230.
Dissertation Abstracts International 43 (1982): 539B.
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 11 (1987): 111–132
That's why they are in prison. Breaking stones would be a better therapy for them than f%$%$ Meditation. (I'm serious).
I agree that prisons don't solve anything. We have to decide what is it we want prisons
to do. Is it revenge, removal of people, reducing further offenses, rehabilitation or education?
In the USA the prison population has increased 300% since the 1980s. People over there go to
prison for ridiculous reasons such up to one year for possession of cannabis. When you consider
that it was okay for Clinton and Bush to admit taking cannabis, and they go free, but the thousands
of others thrown in jail and the damage it does to them, their families and their kids; it is just
unbelievable.
It would seem that
Capitalist society prefers to spend money just locking up people and hanging the threat of prison
over everyone to brow beat them into submission and passivity. There is no attempt to face up to and
solve the problems of society. But then that might be because the injustice and inequalities might be
exposed and real change could come that would threaten their position.
For more information and articles related to the prison system in general checkout the URL in the
related link and this link http://www.prisonsucks.com/factsheets.shtml too.
In dealing with literally the scum of the earth on a daily basis. Congratulations John Lonergan and well done.
On this day in history a Deputy Higgins got sent to the Joy as Mountjoy prison is known to us Dubliners.
That does have a certain historical resonance, for the foreign reader (oh sure you're there we know) Higginses as the higgins is known in plural have gone to many prisons before.
Of course now Kilmainham is not a prison it's a museum.
"The old triangle goes jingle jangle on the banks of the Royal Canal" (the words of a popular and traditional song, put you in mind of Reclaim the streets or something).
Anyway other things that happened on this day:
(gratuitous link first http://www.uhc-collective.org.uk/toolbox/index.htm)
1970 jimmy Hendrix found dead.
http://www.hotshotdigital.com/WellAlwaysRemember/JimiHendrixBio.html
1830 Chile gained independence from Spain.
The Monroe doctrine happened around about then.
1885 -- Paul Roussenq lives (1885-1949). Best known as the "anarchist convict".
Roussenq began years in prison began at age16, when arrested & sentenced to 3-months in jail for vagrancy. He threw a bread crust at the prosecutor, & with this dastardly terrorist act he remained in prison until 1932(!), when a massive protest campaign finally gained his release.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/libertaire/bagne.htm
1970 Today Diana Ross topped the charts (US) with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" it stayed there 3 weeks.
1823 North American indians:1823: Thirty-one Seminoles sign a treaty (7 stat. 224) on Moultrie Creek in Florida, with the United States. Six Chiefs are given large estates to get them to agree to the treaty. Those chiefs were: John Blunt, Eneah Emathla, Emathlochee, Tuski Hadjo, Econchattemicco, and Mulatto King. The Seminoles give up lands north of Tampa Bay, and return runaway black slaves. They receive an annuity of $5000. The lands set aside for the Seminoles are poor, at best. The Americans are represented by James Gadsden.
http://www.americanindian.net/September.html
Argentina:
Peronism ended with a coup d 'etat.
Watch those. THey're very regular.
1851 the NYT was founded.
the New York Times, an internationally known newspaper, and probably the most respected newspaper in the United States. It was originally called the New York Daily Times. But then the editorial team incorporated it.
they do that.
GET THEM OUT OF THE JOY
GET THEM ALL OUT OF THE JOY
ONE OUT
ALL OUT
gaa gaa.
The Auld Triangle
By Brendan Behan
A hungry feeling, came o'er me stealing
And the mice they were squealing in my prison cell
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.
Oh to start the morning, the warden bawling
Get up out of bed you, and clean out your cell
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.
Oh the screw was peeping and the lag was sleeping
As he lay weeping for his girl Sal
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.
On a fine spring evening, the lag lay dreaming
And the seagulls were wheeling high above the wall
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.
Oh the wind was sighing, and the day was dying
As the lag lay crying in his prision cell
And that auld triangle, went jingle bloody jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.
In the female prison there are seventy women
And I wish it was with them that I did dwell
And that auld triangle, went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal.
Loads of people sing sang have sung it.
To sing is an irregular verb.
burn the Shane Mac Gowan off an MP3 site.
http://www.shanemacgowan.com/lyrics/triangle.shtml
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