FIANNA Fail has called for an independent inquiry into the 1995 Mountjoy Prison Visiting Committee Report, following yesterday's publication of the document by the Minister for Justice.
The party's spokesman on law reform, Mr Willie O'Dea, criticised the delay in publication, and asked if last night's move was intended to "divert attention"
from current difficulties surrounding the Duncan extradition case. An independent inquiry should be initiated immediately, he said, to report within 10 weeks.
A spokeswoman for the Minister, Mrs Owen, said the decision to publish was taken in accordance with current legislation, and on foot of Thursday's statement by the committee that it stood by the report's contents.
The complete document had been published, the spokeswoman added, and the Minister and her Department would "consider its contents fully".
The report, details of which were published earlier this month in The Irish Times, forecasts that the prison faces "certain disaster", due to overcrowding, an epidemic drugs problem and an "ad hoc, unco ordinated" medical service denying prisoners their medical rights.
Ireland is in breach of the 1966 UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which it ratified in 1989, duel to its failure to provide separate remand facilities for prisoners, it states.
Expressing grave concern at the continued mixing of remand and sentenced prisoners, it says that until a separate remand institution exists, Mountjoy has "no hope of becoming a civilised, purposeful institution".
The recidivism rate of more than 70 per cent for sentenced prisoners is compounded by the bulk of such separate remand facilities, particularly in the context of a rampant drug culture".
The report is severely critical of management of the drugs problem. It observes that certain staff members believe that if drugs were totally eradicated from the prison, tensions would rise to a dangerous level, with "prisoners getting desperate for a fix taking out their frustration on prisons staff".
It describes the lack of treatment facilities for prisoners with mental problems as a "disgrace", and highlights the "lack of ethical accountability" within the prison medical system.
Referring to wastage of expenditure, due to an "ad hoc" medical system, it estimates that psychiatrists are being paid an average of £35,000 for their work in Mountjoy, over and above their full salaries.
Yet there is a constant waiting list for admission and evaluation of undiagnosed, psychotically ill prisoners from Mountjoy to the Central Mental Hospital.
The report includes a time and motion study on the medical services in the main prison, based on records of visits by doctors during 1994. One doctor saw 42 patients in 42 minutes during one visit, and 31 patients in 35 minutes on another occasion.
Doctors also declined to take blood samples or do suturing, and the hospital visits for these and other procedures were a waste of taxpayers' money, it says.
Referring to the increase in drugs use, the committee welcomes the decision by the Minister to provide a drugs free unit at the training unit, separate from but adjacent to Mountjoy. However, it says that the women's prison has been overlooked.
"It is salutary to note that many of the women prisoners who had been in Mountjoy are now dead from drugs," it says.
It records three suicides and 13 attempts among male prisoners in 1995, and 15 attempts by women prisoners, six of which were serious.
"A tragic aspect of the background of some cases is the breakdown in family contact, with the prisoner having no visitors at all over many months," it says.
Overcrowding is described as a crisis issue which requires a crisis response by the Government. ,Only "the skills and dedication of Governor John Lonergan, his deputy governors and staff (working at times against extraordinary odds) have prevented matters becoming more serious," says the report.
