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THE MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter is calling for all teenagers to be moved out of St Patrick’s Institution by 2014, after a report by the Inspector of Prisons revealed systematic violations of the human rights of the young people being held there.
The report by Judge Michael Reilly, released yesterday, found that a “culture of fear” pervaded the prison, noting the excessive and unrecorded use of force by staff against inmates. It reported incidents of forced stripping of clothes from the prisoners, excessive punishment – including denying children family visits, and bullying and intimidation of young and vulnerable inmates by a minority of staff.
The report said weak management, the culture in the prison, and the prevalence of drugs means the facility no longer provides safe, secure and humane custody. The prison currently houses young offenders aged between 17 and 21 years of age.
‘Substantial concerns’
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme this morning, the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said he had had “very substantial concerns” about St Patrick’s and so strongly welcomed the work done by the Inspector of Prisons and the Ombudsman for Children in highlighting conditions there.
He said he had visited the facility in a ministerial capacity in 2011 but that the true circumstances of the prison had not be made visible to him at that time – which is why, he said, the investigative work of Michael Reilly was “so important”.
The Minister said that a substantial programme of reform and management structure had now been put in place and that plans to remove all teenagers from the facility by 2014 were underway.
In response to concerns raised about the possible treatment of young inmates in the interim, Shatter insisted that the culture of fear in the prison has been “brought to an end”, and that ‘the control and restraint’ measures detailed in Reilly’s report had been discontinued. About 60 per cent of staff have undergone retraining so far – with the remainder due to complete retraining by November – he added.
Shatter said investigations had begun concerning particular officers whose behaviour had been criticised in the report, and that a new procedure for complaints would be in place by 1 November.
Ombudsman for Children
The Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan, also speaking this morning, said that her concerns about the welfare of children at the institution had been routinely ignored over the years.
Logan explained that St Patrick’s had not been part of her remit until this July due to an exclusion dating back to the inception of the office. In 2009, the Ombudsman conducted a three-month review of the treatment of young people at the facility, which unearthed abuses – however Logan said the findings were ‘sneered’ at because they concerned youngsters who had been in conflict with the law.
She said the culture of intimidation perpetuated by a minority of staff at the facility, coupled with a negative attitude towards young offenders, caused reports of abuses were low.
Yesterday, Liam Herrick, the executive director of the IPRT described the finding of the report a “national disgrace”.
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“Children” most of these are young lawless thugs who terrorise communities, they need to be treated humanely fair enough but it shouldn’t be run like a hotel either
I’d have to say that the victims of the original crime perpetrated by most of these inmates wouldn’t use the word ‘children’ to describe them.
“youngsters who have been in conflict with the law”
That’s an understatement. Let’s remember that in order to get into St Pats you have to use up all your chances under the Juvenile Diversion Program. You then have to be convicted enough times so that probation and fines are no longer enough. Only then will you be put in St Pats. Those who make it into St Pats have done so by showing a complete disregard for the human rights of others. They are not there for rehabilitation or punishment. They are there so that decent people will have one less criminal to worry about.
I’ll tell you what, let Michael Reilly and Emily Logan spend a week in there as a prison guard and see how much their report changes.
These so called “children” are victims of bullying…. What about the people of Ireland who have been victims of their crimes, they are not in St Pats for stealing an apple.
And more importantly were are these criminals going to be housed??
Maybe I missed it somewhere in the article but what does the weak minded minister intend doing with these lawless little shits? It’s already been highlighted how much trouble these little darlings have to cause before they ever reach st pats and now he wants to keep them out of there? Maybe a visit from one or two of the little sweethearts to Alan shatters home might wake him up a little bit.
Am I right in not thinking that they stay in ‘Pats’ should be a good one? I thought the whole point was so they would never want to go back there ….
These young people need to be educated, thought how to behave properly in society, should come face to face with their victims, trade skills need to be put in place in prisons I am sure their are very talented young people who just got caught up in wrong friendships, but prison also needs to be about punishment for your crimes, when you have done your sentence you should not want to go back !
The judge said the cells needed painting.
Give the prisoners a bucket of paint and a brush.
Anyone remember the old Irish proverb ” Mol an oige agus thoichad siad” (encourage the youth and they will grow) . I can understand how people feel above however further abuse of these young people will not serve them nor society . We must remember every one of them is some mothers child . Anyone of us here this morning could be visiting one of our own in a similar institution in the future . No one is exempt from falling ..
Abuse??? 70% are using drugs in some shape or form….no wonder they have to be strip searched forcibly, it’s not as if they are voluntarily going to hand over their little stash & then they complain about it…give me a break…there’s a fine line between breaching human rights & these thugs taking advantage of the system to make life easier for themselves inside.
I always find it a great source of amusement that the authors of these kind of prison reports have never worked as a Prison Officer. I would never dream of walking in to a hospital and writing a critical report of how the Surgeons operated in their theaters. Yet others feel qualified to condem Officers for doing the best they can in difficult circumstances. As the old saying goes ” Walk a mile in my shoes before you judge me”. What I would suggest is that before writing their reports that these authors put on a uniform and work as an ordinary Officer for 1 year and then go write the report. I would bet their conclusions would be vastly different .
The person who wrote this report was a judge. I think that qualifies him. Did you even read it? He praised the work of most of the wardens he spoke to, but rightly condemned the actions of a small minority of staff who could be termed bullies.
Marlena yes he is a Judge. Does sending people to prison all of a sudden make him an expert on then inner workings of a prison? Would a Prison Officer be qualified to write a report on the inner workings of the Judicary because they are in court everyday? The Judge visits these prisons a few times a year and spends roughly a couple of hours. And suddenly knows everything there is to know about how to manage disruptive and violent inmates!
You can only do what you can do, with resources that you have; prison officers can only follow the policies that are laid down by management, etc.
I doubt the author of this report was being critical of prison officers, who can only work within the system that is there.
That said, the system that exists may not be a very good one and this report clearly shows things need to change,for everyone involved, including the prison officers. Why should prison officers have to deal with youngsters in the way that they do, its probably because they have no other choice at the minute.
The findings about St Patrick’s, and the comments above, should remind us that you can judge a society by the way it treats its children.
I treat children fine as do most Irish people.
You obviously don’t understand or have to on a daily basis deal with the kind of “children” who get put in saint pats.
Just for the record the majority of people put there are over 18 anyway which makes them young adults
The point is to try separate the teenagers from that environment , there are approx 30 detained in st Pats who are 17 years of age.
Without going into details, John, I’ve dealt with plenty of such children, and am none the worse for it. That is why I reiterate the need for any “majority of Irish people” who applaud the disgraceful revelations about St Patrick’s to remember our recent history, and lose the mentality that formed the industrial schools and their legacy.
I won’t go into specifics either but my guess is you work in some kind of support role for these youngsters which I’m not against them getting if theres any hope of them changing their ways but to be sent to saint pats in the first place they’d have to have been before the courts for years and chances are committed offences ranging from assault, mugging, burglaries drug dealing etc. so maybe you haven’t come off any worse for their behaviour but I can tell you for sure that plenty of others have!
Thankfully someone with a bit of logic and insight! @Aleo I was beginning to despair reading these comments.
Do onto others as you would have done onto you, these youngsters are not adults and are meant to be looked after by the state.
Or to quote a famous phrase “The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people`s children.” – Its no wonder the country is going down the toilet then.
Most children who fall under state care in are not treated fine, they are treated anything but fine and almost every HIQA report that has been published with regard to children and state care acknowledges this fact, people pretend that some young people are just bad but that is not the case. Very little changes, it seems we as a people haven’t changed that much despite report after report; yet some people expect these young people to turn out fine, even when they are subjected to disgraceful treatment by these who heve been entrusted with their care.
Children learn to treat people, by the way they are treated themselves, and we as people are very well versed at ignoring the plight of children who are being neglected, abused and even worse.
For example, in October of last year an investigation into Gleann Alainn Special Care Unit , seperate to the HIQA reports, was ordered folllowing the absconsion of 2 young girls from this unit. Almost 1 year later and this investigation has still not been completed, I think it is, at this very moment the subject of a legal review, costing us all plenty of money.
As far as I am aware, 3 investigations into the events surronding that particular absconsion have now taken place with little or know outcome. These investigation all cost money and the government can be seen to be doing something to investigate what happens to children, but its just lip service, responsiblity and accountability are rarely attached to anyone.
As for 18 year olds and over commiting crimes for years before they entered institutions like St Pats, the help they needed to stop commiting crimes couldn’t have been there. They would need to be criminals from a very young age to be commiting crimes for years, many young children in this country are need of help but their plight is ignored;
that’s not an excuse for the way many these young people act but it does go some way to explaining the behaviour.
It’s all well and good this lad going into pats and seeing all these problems with how it’s run, but I wonder how he would suggest to deal with a person, child or adult who may have a weapon and/or is being violent towards others or himself without retrieving the weapon and putting him in confinement??
That’s not the point he’s making, go back and read the report. And he’s not some lad who has walked in off the street, he is a judge.
I know who he is and I did read the report, he makes many points in it, one of them being that stripping a person and putting them in confinement is a violation of their rights which is what I’m talking about? I stand by what I said, anyone who presents a threat to another person or themselves should to be confined until they are calmer and if this judge thinks that’s wrong I’d like to know how he would propose to deal with it.
Video the behaviour of these guys and their abuse of esh other plus the staff. Show it on RTE.
Shatter needs to protect decent people who are terrorised by these thugs. They are criminals and should be treated as criminals. Hound offenders sounds very nice but would Shatter call one of these guys a young offender if his elderly parents were beaten and robbeb in their own home while at the same time destroying their home.
Children? These are “hoods” that are the main problem in our society. St Pats is exactly what they need a hard as nails, 0 tolerance place to stay. They will fear this place next time, and think twice about committing crimes next time round! The Guards should be allowed to take this approach and stop pussy footing around them all the time!!
If St Pats was the solution recidivism rates in 16 to 24 year olds would not be so high. This approach doesn’t work, if the objective is actually a safer society it has not and most likely will not be achieved.
The Baltic states are among countries with the lowest recidivism rates and the most humane incarceration systems.
First off, the poor pets, not enough play stations in there. They prob have to.share them. Second point would not be cheaper and make more sense long term to change the staff instead of moving young lads . But I guess all the staff have state jobs and can’t be moved as the unions will act up. So no one has the balls and the staff will be left there getting paid but with no inmates as we can’t trust the staff .
I think you missed the point as it being a “minority of staff”. You comment seems to more of a dig a public service workers than anything else and as one, I take great offense to your comment. If front line staff get moved (say to a different hospital unit in my case) that
directly impacts patient care. Hence why we “bring in the unions”.
In a few weeks the government want us to vote Yes in the childrens referendum, If passed the government will have the legal right to snatch kids they consider are living with unfir parents. What is unfit parents? Under the referendum unfit parents will be decided in secret between the government and judges. When YOUR kids are taken in the night they will end up in places like St Patricks.
Far more child abuse has happened at the hands of the irish state, and yet they want us to vote to give them more powers over children?
VOTE NO.
Please could you expand on your statement that the State will take children from unfit parents and put them (the children) in prison?? Do you realise how ridiculous this is?
Read the legislation in regards to the referendum, The state will have the power to remove children from families they deem unfit.
What is a unfit parent? That is between the state and the judges.
Where will kids go?
Into the states care.
How well are the state doing looking after children already?
Look at St Patricks for an example. Just because its a prison dosent mean the state isnt responsible.
You have completely avoided the question so I’ll ask again – do you realise how ridiculous your statement was that the State will take children from unfit parents and put the children in prison – that is what you said.
Bullshit. Unfit parents should have their children removed from their so called care. I daresay if the majority of lads currently in remand in St Pat’s had been removed from their parents at the right age, they would currently not be residing there!!
This is an excuse to put less thugs away. Wait for a huge increase in crime in 2014 when these inmates are all out. Nobody cares about the human rights of a victim of crime. victims that suffer a crime have to relive the experience throughout trials and appeals only to see the thug get a slap on the wrist or to end up in prison where the do gooders are more worried about the inmates rights of comfort than caring how a victim copes in the future. This country is upsidedown. if you look at the thumbs most people on here would disagree with the do gooders so why does the majority not rule.
There is a simple “excuse” for not putting people who have committed non violent crimes into prison – prisons don’t work. More reasons include recidivism rates in Ireland run at over 80% and the cost of imprisoning someone is extremely high, yet the victim will bear the financial cost for any damage done to their property and belongings.
Where are they gonna put them? Are they gonna be released? And why does it take so long?
Sleepers.
I think one of the main problems is lack of follow up and linking in with services post release.
I believe it is certainly true that most of those who end up in St. Patrick’s will have exhausted other avenues of deterrence and therefore are more in need than ever of monitoring and support after their sentence is complete to attempt prevent recidivism.
It is like aftercare following a serious operation.
It’s my experience that there is more help for prisoners than there is for their victims.
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