Parnell Summer School:There is no public support for the rehabilitation of prisoners and most people are only interested in prisoners being punished, the governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan, said yesterday.
He told the Parnell Summer School there was "huge public support" for prisons, but purely on a retribution and punishment basis.
Mr Lonergan said he frequently met people who said prison was "too good for the gougers. They should be locked up and that's what they deserve. It doesn't matter if there are 10 of them to a cell. It's too good for them. They should be out in chain gangs working".
He said prison should also be about rehabilitation, education and reintegration.
"I don't believe there is any real public support for that element of it. If we don't take ownership of that element of it, well, then locking people up is a very short-sighted solution. The real problem is going to exist when they come out again."
When controversy emerged at Mountjoy, as it had recently with the death of prisoner Gary Douch and the assault of others, there was "an unrealistic expectation that every problem that we have in the country can be solved inside Mountjoy. . . But what instruments have we? What resources do we have? What commitments have we? What attitude have we?"
Mr Lonergan asked why society allowed the "dumping" of people with mental illness in prison.
"What's the logic of that?" he said. When something went wrong, as it inevitably did, people searched for a scapegoat to blame.
This year's Parnell Summer School, at Avondale House, in Wicklow, is examining the legacy of Michael Davitt, founder of the Land League. Mr Lonergan said he believed we were "a million miles away from creating the type of society that Davitt dreamed of".
Pointing to the housing crisis and the huge mortgages being paid by struggling couples, he asked "where are the Davitts to stand up and lead? There are none".
He said people had shown very little concern for the rights of others in the past decade. "Have you ever seen any sort of a public protest about anything except a vested interests protest? It's about ourselves again . . ."
He agreed that small groups of people had protested over issues such as the use of Shannon airport, but said there was no national groundswell of protest over the treatment of others.
"It's about basic human rights. Every child born should have equal opportunities. They haven't.
"If you were sick and had money, you could jump to the top of the queue for treatment. If you had money, you could buy your child's education."
This was not the fault of the Government, he said. The Government was only doing what we wanted. "But what's popular isn't always right, and what's right isn't always popular."