The Irish prison service is wasting taxpayers' money by failing to provide adequate counselling services, it was claimed today.
The National Prison Chaplains Association said many prisoners were released back into society in a worse condition, despite the annual average of €85,000 euro spent on each of them.
Association spokesman Father Declan Blake said it was "a waste of time" sending people to prison if they don't get the help they need.
"People expect when they go into prison that they will be better and stronger coming out," he said.
There are ten psychologists for a prison population of more than 3,000.
Fr Blake, who is the prison chaplain in Arbour Hill, said the only psychologist there was occupied with the eight people on the sex offenders programme. He added that there was no psychologist in Castlerea prison in Roscommon and just two in Mountjoy prison.
"There's hundreds of prisoners in Mountjoy and they need a lot more counsellors as well as psychologists to deal with the numbers," he said.
The Inspector of Prisons, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen has identified inadequate psychological counselling as one of the three major shortcomings in Irish prisons.
In Wheatfield Prison in Dublin, he found the sole psychologist there had a waiting list of 66 prisoners and could only see between eight and 12 inmates a week.
Fr Blake said the "lock `em up and throw away the key" attitude held by some people was a "total waste of time".
"If prisoners don't get help, they'll re-offend again. So if people aren't prepared to put the money into rehabilitation, they'll suffer the consequences of it."
Countries which have invested in the provision of trained counsellors - such as Germany, New Zealand and Japan - experienced a drop in re-offending rates among prisoners.
Fr Blake said that prisoners with drug and alcohol problems were often in such poor condition that they could not take part in other prison programmes, such as Leaving Cert or Open University classes.
PA