Construction work on Thornton Prison to replace inhumane, Dickensian drug infested Mountjoy complex will start within 12 months.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, T.D., has said that preparatory planning on the new prison complex at Thornton in north County Dublin is definitely on track to permit building work to commence on site in March 2007.

"A considerable amount of progress has been made.  Expressions of interest from developers have been invited and the Irish Prison Service expects to be in a position to go to tender in relation to the main development in the coming months.  The projects will be developed through a PPP on a design, build, finance and maintain basis" the Minister said. "The Mountjoy complex is totally unsuitable to accommodate prisoners in the 21st century.  Apart altogether from the Dickensian conditions, the site is impossible to secure from a drug consumption point of view and we saw this week some prisoners in St Patrick's Institution attempting to take advantage of that.  The new prison complex will be constructed with an extensive perimeter to prevent drugs being thrown over the wall and it will have full rehabilitative facilities, including football pitches and other open spaces."

The development of the new prison will also ensure that there is no return to the revolving door of the mid 1990s when the Rainbow Government presided over a situation with 20% of prisoners on temporary release.  The Irish Prison Service has advised that the consequence of factors such as the increase in the population generally and the Minister's policy of ensuring that people convicted of violent murders serve 15 to 20 years combined with the increasing number of mandatory sentences for gun and drug related crime, will be a "silting up" of available spaces.  Although the Minister is committed to alternatives to custody where such measures are appropriate, the simple fact is that there are crimes for which custodial sentences will always be necessary.
 
Prudent financial management therefore dictates that provision must be made for additional capacity of approximately 600 spaces in the medium term thus ensuring that decisions in relation to temporary release are made by reference to objective criteria rather than arbitrary issues such as pressure on space.  The provision of the new prison complex at Thornton will facilitate this and the more active management of individual sentences. 

Two separate project management teams have been put in place to manage both the construction of Thornton and the disposal of the very valuable site at Mountjoy.  The Minister indicated he is determined to realise the best possible deal for the taxpayer in disposing of the Mountjoy site "Some Labour councillors on Dublin City Council have already made efforts to restrict the site's value by proposing cynical motions to designate parts of Mountjoy as of major historical and architectural significance.  Likewise, Fingal County Council has passed a motion designating the fields of Thornton as an area of architectural conservation.  I will not allow these blatant efforts at obstruction to delay us or deter us from our aim to bring Irish prisons into the 21st century.  Humane and drug free custody for the bulk of our prison population can only be fully achieved through the closure of Mountjoy and its replacement."

17 March 2006.