Discipline in Prisons

by Michelle Clarke - Social Inclusion and understanding Mon Feb 19, 2007 21:54

Kevin, I read with interest and shame your article about our prison service in Ireland at a time that the Justice Department sanctions more legislation including increased powers to the Gardai and detention..

Crime as far as I can see has become a generational past-time in certain areas. Illegal drugs, weapons, two tier society, ought to alert us to other methods of redress with a particular emphasis to enhance the education and seek out the talents of those with merit, in our prison system.

The Law Society, last Saturday hosted lectures titled - Rebalancing Rights. I would suggest one might get the notes on same from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties.......they are well worth reading, in the light of Mr. Justice McDowell's views and forthcoming legislation.

Ivana Bacik, Read Professor, Trinity College, spoke on the Concept of Balance.....

A thought raised by a criminologist from Canada - concerned victimology and the growth of this pillar and its impact on restorative justice.

Quotation from Michael J.A. Brown, Principal Youth Court Judge, Auckland, New Zealand - 6th October 1994.

'By Changing the emphasis from a punitive condemnatory stance to one where the group sought to repair the Emotional and Material Damage of Crime, I glimpsed the potential for a wider applicability of such a process and the capacity for far more creative resolution of problems....

With the advent of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act in 1989, particularly with the provisions for family group conferences, my enthusiasm blossomed.......The undeniable success of that process with its exciting and limitless potential, particularly for victim involvement and input, has been a wonderful experience. The robustness of the exercise and the enthusiastic involvement of the Police Youth Aid Section made this a most satisfying and encouraging area within which to work.....'

This is a forward to a book written by Fr. Jim Consedine - Restorative Justice - Healing the effects of crime....

A good starting point perhaps...... a man with experience shares his view.....

'The millions of dollars we waste on building new prisons and maintaining our old ones is, generally speaking, money wasted. In no other area of public tax funds expenditure do public monies get less scruting in terms of positive effectiveness than in the area of penal policy......''

This is book is a 'diatribe' against penal policy.

The inspiration is from New Zealand in 1989 and other countries have explored this route.

Kevin, you mentioned about Governor Scannell, Mr. Justice Kinlan and the progressive move of cookery classes.

I often wonder about Literacy levels in prisons. A little dimension of thought would no doubt address a literacy problem in the prison with the excellent literacy programme run by NALA, shown on the website, the 4 hours free per week and the well researched free books. www.rug.ie

Michelle

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Mar 03, 2007 00:04

I was talking to somebody, who knows about prisons, and apparently the Leaving Certificate is an option for prisoners in MountJoy and they obtain very high results in most cases.

Does anyone have any further details?

Michelle

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Wed May 02, 2007 21:13

A person of the seventies, the phone was something that sat in situ in a certain place and if you were well heeled then you might have had an extension by your bed. In the seventies to get a phone in your home involved waiting for several years i.e. unless you were the doctor, Garda, priest or other so called people of authority!! or the word 'power' applied.

In the 1990's in Zimbabwe on contract the phone was a real luxury, you got a phone assigned to the house when you managed to let it i.e. if it was one of the lucky houses to have a phone line. Then you might be lucky to have your own line but generally you only got access to the Party Line with 20 others and a tone that was household specific but which rang in all. When service broke down, it was not for hours, it was weeks and that was the mid 1990's as the Celtic Tiger took its leap in Ireland.

Now every form of communication is to hand yet communication is never more distant. Words follow words and then start the social relations and intricacies of the corporate market, the advertising, the bluff, the spin, the lies, the deals, the crime. Everybody appears to be attached to the mobile - it has become image and it has become identity and we our losing touch with reality.

However, to hear the barrage ofn the Joe Duffy show yesterday and then to hear a man who was sentenced to High Security Prison Portlaoise connecct direct to Joe Duffy on Live Radio afternoon show. Here as a person termed a criminal, who has been sentenced for his part in an armed robberty at a petrol station talking live from inside prison.

I look to Kevin's article. I think discipline. I recall hospital here and in Zimbabwe and one phone for all patients at specific times only..

How are people in prison being allowed to use mobile phones? I have no problem with communication with family and loved one's but perhaps once a day in pay phones in a specific location. No prison warders could manage a system if the prisoners have their own mobile phones.....human nature is just that......people will take opportunities if they are just there to be taken.

Perhaps a little clueness but surely Eircom have some form of blanket system to immobilise the mobile. But then I suppose this is a silly point given customers are Eircom's vested interest be they inside the prison or out.

I cannot understand how the Governor of Mountjoy John Lonergan, who I head interviewed recently by Eamon Dunphy. This man has been over 40 years in his job......I ask humbly has this practice of mobile phones just become an accepted practice in our prisons - why such sleepiness? Per haps a time has come for serious shakeups among Governors, Justice Department and Staff.

Today, we have a journalist/writer on 24 hour armed Guard........people scared of an inside world they had not thought until now existed. Why? A chance call to Joe Duffy Live and words ring through, threats abound.

I note Kevin has written a lot on the subject of prisons, prison officers, the Block in Cork, Discipline.

I note the last night the yound man who dared to phone direct to Joe Duffy Live received admonition. He was sent to Cork.....

Kevin talks of the Block.......I wonder just exactly what the Block is about? I sincerely hope human rights are fundamental to the discipline involved.

I comment Mr. Justice Kinlen for his persistance about Rights for people in Prison, I admire the work of the Parole Board and people like Dr. Kennedy in the Central Mental Clinic.

The time has come to welcome Mr. Kinlen to the position of the Inspector at the Inspectorate for Prisons. A real challenge, based on the Joe Duffy Liveline today, lies ahead. Embrace the challenge, for it appears to be a real challenge.

Jack Russell
Quotation May West (1892-1980) US actress
'I used to be snow white but I drifted'

or

The Great Dictator Jeanette Winterson 1959 British Writer
'Passion will not be commanded. It commands us'

Now there's something to explore. I recall reading about Gangs in Dublin in the 1930's - the Animal Gang for one, their rule was about fear and violence......did we learn anything from social history?

by Jack Russell - Social Justice and Ethics Sat May 26, 2007 23:18

Kevin,

I note your articles relating to the Prison system but note nobody has yet spoken about the Block in Cork.

I bought the Village Magazine this Month - the Election Special. One article caught my eye so I thought I would give an intro to it. It concerns prisons and being a prisoner. It inspires hope

The section is Culture and Media - the tile is 'A Lifer's sentence'. It is part of the Cuirt International Literary Festival. Article written by Colin Murphy.

The writer Erwin James spent his childhood in borstals and spent most of his adult life behind bars. Now released, he has visited Castlerea prisoners. The book written by him is 'The prisoner's notebook'.

Except from Village Magazine

'My purpose was not to get out, but to have a decent way of life in prison, to have values. I studied history and philosohy. I admired people that triumphed over adversity.

You have to be determined'.

Michelle

Quotation
Gandhi
'Live as if you are going to die tomorrow; but learn as if you are going to learn for the rest of your live'

Avail of any opportunity for life-long learning - it empowers!!!!

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Jul 21, 2007 19:21

Mr. Justice Kinland was buried today.

Condolensces to Family; friends, colleagues of Mr. Justice Kinlan.

He is greatly esteemed for his works concerning the prison system with particular emphasis on Civil Liberties and human rights.

May his works continue to make changes in a system of mundane mediocrity.

Crime and Punishment - The Irish Penal System Commission Report - edited by Sean MacBride 1982

'Prison walls keep the prisoners in - and the public out. What really goes on behind bars? Can we be proud of our prisons? Does this costly service provide an efficient return to the Community? Or is it just money, and people, down the drain?

What should be the objective of our penal system? Retribution? Punishment? Reform? Rehabilitation? Reintegration into Society? Is custodial incarceration the most effective form and less wasteful?'

Quotation: Ramsey Clark, Former US Attorney General
'No activity of a people exposes their humanity, their character, their capacity for charity in its most generous dimension, as the treatment they accord to persons convicted of crime'

Michelle Clarke

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Oct 05, 2007 21:33

Michelle

I was listening to the Joe Duffy show today re. above and decided to look Indymedia and hence this posting.

Again I quote, as per your posting, the following: These were Humanitarian aspirations at that time......What happened?

The Irish Penal System Commission Report
- edited by Sean MacBride 1982

'Prison walls keep the prisoners in - and the public out. What really goes on behind bars? Can we be proud of our prisons? Does this costly service provide an efficient return to the Community? Or is it just money, and people, down the drain?

It is almost a quarter of a century since the brutal death of Chief Officer Brian Stack at Portlaoise prison. Can somebody surely sniff out something particularly nasty here? On one hand, Commissioner Conroy has opened up a Cold Case Squad on a disgraceful 207 unsolved murders in this country, over the last number of years. If you put this on ratio with New York, Ireland would be near top for murder in the world. In the 1970's, we had a Murder's Squad, who were suddenly disbanded!!!Why has a similar squad not been returned to deal with this horrendous number of murders, in this small island.

What is the agenda of RTE in all of this? Duffy again goes on a solo run and he picks out of the 207 murders, the murder of Chief Officer Brian Stack. Did he hold a raffle on Liveline to select this man? - I don't think so. Now with the Peace Process gaining popularity and trust and jobs for both sides of the divide, North and South of the Border, 'Ballyfermot Joe' is going back to old scores on who did what?

How does Joe make the selection of Brian Stack, for and what is the real agenda? It doesn't make sense, we have many missing vulnerable women in this country, with families like the Stack family, in great personal pain. At least, Brian Stack received a funeral, unlike the missing women.

P.J. McEvoy, was President of the Prison Officers Association in the 1980's. Mr. McEvoy had agreed to speak with Joe Duffy. He confirmed that he had spoke with representatives of the IRA and that it was not them. There were 5 different groups of republicanism in Portlaoise at that time. Again I ask what is Joe Duffy's motive?

Again let us look to the aspirations in 1982.....
'Prison walls keep the prisoners in - and the public out.
What really goes on behind bars?
Can we be proud of our prisons?
Does this costly service provide an efficient return to the Community?
Or is it just money, and people, down the drain?

Personally, it appears that policy is retrograde and human rights also.

Tonight on the Late Late Show, Martin Cahill's daughter will appear. Tonight at 8.55, I say to the audience when you applaud - you applaud murder, thuggery, a common violent thief with no respect for anyone - with the murder rates spirralling in the last few months, what is the agenda with RTE? Liveline too, promoted the 'Book'........Where is the Restorative Justice approach to hard crime, violence, drug empires etc....?

I hope the Minister for Justice and Equality and Law, Reform, Brian Lenihan and his lady wife, a Judge are watching the Late Late tonight.

Heroin, Cocaine, Hash are the party drugs that exist today....now there is such an extensive distribution network throughout the Island of Ireland, through to Europe, to Afghanistan.......that the exotic Poppy that yearly whets the embers of war dead, today in the 'Traders' market determine that price is suffice, so that the rich doctors, judges, consultants, etc. can partake - all they need is the source and the money. Those ambassadors of Morality and Ethics through using cocaine are creating the underclass, the HIV ridden, people. It is the mindset of selfish that ensures countries like Afghanistan release onto the market 70% cocaine.......this is the same type of market trading as buying diamonds in South Africa.......

Living in Dublin 4, walking the Canal, and meeting a variety of people, those living in shelters, some with a habit to feed, lawyers, the odd Judge, entreprenneurs.......we are all part of a paradox. The issue is who considers themselves bound by Moral Principles and with a capacity to Take Responsibility. Every head in Dublin 4 that shoots up, snorts up, puffs up.......is ultimately pulling the same trigger sadly that got that Garda Sherlock last week. Again I ask about the Agenda of Joe Duffy, Liveline and Pat Kenny, Late Late.

(you might find it interesting to access the website for philosophy in Havard University......Take Responsibility is the theme.

Kevin T. Walsh

AID's
'Societies need to have one illness which becomes identified with evil, and attaches blame to its 'victims'
By Susan Sontag (born 1933) US critic and Author. Her books include Aids and its Metaphors.......

Also

Lies
'In our country the Lie has become not just a moral category but a Pillar of the State'

By Alexander Solzhenitsyn (born 1918) Russian dissident who spent 8 years in prison for criticizing Stalin. The Gulag Archipeligo.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Sat Oct 06, 2007 00:07

Kevin. I watched the Late Late tonight - the interview with Martin Cahill's daughter re. her book is not until next week.

Two more murders tonight, and the little six year old son is there to see his father shot dead....a child and horrible memories...what can be done to reduce violence.....

Michelle

by C Murray Wed Oct 10, 2007 10:46

This is just coming through, the state has had to give assurances to the
Council of Europe on Prisoner treatment in Irish prisons.

http://newstalk.ie/newstalk/news/1253/government-gives-....html

The Hugh Chetwinf Report is not at present available at link,
These are:- http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/regions/Europe-Central...eland
(This report focuses on the Murder of Gary douch in Mountjoy last summer,
for which the family received a rare statement of apology from the justice
dept.)
Full article:- http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82707

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Fri Oct 12, 2007 21:40

Chris

Thank you for reply about the release of the Hugh Chetwin report.

The Late Late Show might be worth watching tonight. Pat Kenny is interviewing the daughter of Martin Cahill RIP, Frances about her new autobiography.

Perspective is always interesting so it is with interest, I know I will listen to her tonight, and possibly buy the book.

Quotation
Henry David Thoreau (1817-62, US essayist, poet and naturalist

'Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves'.

Michelle