The Government decision to close the only open prison for juveniles in the State is the most retrograde decision on penal policy ever taken by an Irish Minister for Justice, according to the Labour Party.
Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, said yesterday that the closure of Shanganagh Castle meant Ireland would become the only country in the EU not to have such a detention centre. "Shanganagh Castle is the only open prison for juveniles in the country," he said. Its success was measured by the fact that the recidivism rate of its former inmates was less than 20 per cent.
"It is the only institution in the country where vulnerable young offenders can serve their sentence in drug-free conditions, free from bullying and free from the oppression and stress which causes countless incidents of self-inflicted injuries and suicides."
He said the closure of Shanganagh Castle would mark the end of the policy of rehabilitation of young offenders. "Virtually no rehabilitation can be carried out in the 'catch-all' closed prisons of St Patrick's Institution, and Fort Mitchell, Spike Island," he said.
He accused Mr McDowell of acting contrary to the policies articulated in the National Economic and Social Forum's Report on Prisons 2002, which was launched and approved by the Taoiseach earlier this year. "It appears that Minister McDowell has succumbed to the cutback frenzy of the Minister for Finance."