Sir, - You report the observation by the governor of Mountjoy Prison that a lack of follow-up care means his charges leave jail "worse off than then they came in" (The Irish Times, April 12th). This should be a matter of national shame.
At an absolute minimum our prisons should have a null effect. Ideally, they should turn out individuals better prepared to live law-abiding lives and make a positive contribution to society.
In 1910 Winston Churchill described the principles which should underlie penal policy as "a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment . . . and an unfaltering faith that there is treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every man."
Would that such sentiments could replace the brutish language of zero tolerance and the current obsession with prison building. - Yours, etc., Dr Ian O'Donnell,
Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust, Lower Dominick Street, Dublin 1.