Inspector of Prisons criticises 'salacious' media coverage

The families of prisoners should not have to endure “salacious” and “self-serving” media commentary about their loved ones and their conditions in jail, the Inspector of Prisons has said.

In a speech on attitudes towards prisoners, Mr Justice Michael Reilly said he believed "a sizeable number of people" would like to see harsh conditions in Irish jails. Citing newspaper coverage that reflected that view, he said: "We read that prisoners live in conditions of luxury and that they have televisions. We read of the good food that they eat and that they are entitled to telephone calls. We hear that they sometimes play chess. Criminals themselves were described as 'savage jail thugs' or 'scumbag rapists'."

‘Self-serving comments’

“I am not saying that factual reports of trials should not be published. Of course they should. But the added salacious, self-serving comments are an altogether other issue, as they affect families,” he said.

“The families are real families who have to live with what their loved ones have done, but they should not have to endure, on a constant basis, the public opprobrium of having their lives paraded in public on a constant basis during the course of a term of imprisonment.”

Speaking at a law conference titled "Dignity, Detention and the State" at NUI Galway, the judge said that when he took up his current post in 2008 conditions at Mountjoy Prison were "beyond description".

Slopping out

At the time, many of the single cells in the jail housed three or four people and had no toilets or basins, forcing prisoners into the “awful reality” of slopping out. In 2008, the judge said, he was told “categorically” by the authorities that one could not instal in-cell sanitation in Mountjoy or any of Ireland’s old prisons.

“I campaigned for the installation of toilets and to have the cells returned to single occupancy. Now all cells in Mountjoy Prison have in-cell sanitation and all have wash-hand basins,” he said.

“The dignity of prisoners is respected in that these facilities are screened off.”

While State institutions were responsible for treating prisoners with dignity, prisons operated on the authority and consent of citizens. “Prisoners forfeit their rights to freedom. That is all they forfeit. They are entitled to all the other rights and privileges that you and I enjoy,” he said.