WHILE THE new report is the strongest to date on St Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders, it is by no means the first time the prison facility for children and young men has been criticised.
Indeed, since the 1980s its regime and facilities have been exposed as completely unsuitable, with many experts and groups recommending its closure.
Successive reports from the visiting committee at the prison have described a regime and facility dating back to the 1800s that is completely unsuitable to house young offenders.
The Whitaker report 30 years ago recommended its closure and while successive governments have promised to reform the facility in north Dublin, Reilly’s report reflects another reality.
In their annual report published in 2010, prison chaplains singled out St Patricks Institution for particular mention, describing it as a “warehouse for young people many of whom were broken by childhood experiences”.
They spoke at the time of a “harsh, punitive system” where young people had a “demoralising, destructive and dehumanising experience; [a system] with few redeeming features characterised by idleness and boredom for young people who are full of energy.”
Situated on the North Circular Road, Dublin 7, it has a bed capacity of 220 and is a closed prison on the same campus as three adult prisons: Mountjoy, the Training Unit and the Dóchas Centre for women prisoners. It opened in the 1950s when boys and young men were transferred there from a reform school in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
