Upcoming Events

Dublin | Miscellaneous

no events match your query!

New Events

Dublin

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire

offsite link In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire

offsite link UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović

offsite link US Gives Weapons to Taiwan for Free, The... Fri May 03, 2024 03:55 | Anti-Empire

offsite link Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.  We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below). 

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en

offsite link Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en

offsite link Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en

offsite link Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Campaign against location of €30m prison complex stepped up

category dublin | miscellaneous | news report author Wednesday August 31, 2005 12:02author by resident - RSMAGauthor email info at residentsssayno dot comauthor address Kilsallaghan, Co. Dublin Report this post to the editors

Prison Campaigners Front Page Add

The Rolestown St Margaret's Action Group (RSMAG) has placed an advertisement opposing Thornton Hall - the new home of Mountjoy Prison and the Central Mental Hospital - in the Irish Independent

RESIDENTS battling to block a new €30m jail in north Dublin yesterday took their campaign to the front page of Ireland's biggest selling daily newspaper.

The Rolestown St Margaret's Action Group (RSMAG) has placed an advertisement opposing Thornton Hall - the new home of Mountjoy Prison and the Central Mental Hospital - in the Irish Independent.

The advert calls on the Government to look at other sites and mocks the qualifying criteria applied by the Department of Justice expert committee which selected the 150-acre site.

Nessa Shevlin, spokeswoman for the protesters, said the committee had rejected the St Margaret's location but Justice Minister Michael McDowell had pushed ahead with the plan.

"Thornton Hall is totally unsuitable by the expert committee's own criteria.

"We have been trying to tell Minister McDowell and the other Cabinet members that the Government has made a huge mistake by agreeing to buy this site and by forging ahead with this plan. But they are not listening, they don't want to hear," she said.

Thornton Hall is the planned accommodation for about 1,000 inmates of Mountjoy, St Patrick's Institution, the Training Unit and the Dochas women's jail. And patients from the Central Mental Hospital will be housed in an adjoining facility.

The advertisement questions the huge cost of the site, its suitability and the selection criteria used. It also says planning permission will not be needed for the facility.

"If it goes ahead, it will result in a massive waste of taxpayers' money and will have untold consequences for our community, environment and heritage," Ms Shevlin insisted.

The deal for the land - at almost €200,000 an acre - is due to be sealed in October and Ms Shevlin claimed the Government should pull out now or risk wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money.

author by residentpublication date Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:25author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The group set up to oppose the prison have had several meetings with the IPRT and have made it their businees to find out about all the other relevant issues. We have been to Mountjoy to meet the Governor. The conditions are atrocious and have been for years. There are many people in there that should not be in prison. If the Government build a prison under PPP then they will be be losing money unless they fill it!! They will rent out the entire building from the PPP people so they will make it their business to ensure its always full! Please please take time to look at the issues here before calling us Nimby's. We don't want this super prison to be built anywhere! Its not in anyones interests. We are of course concerned about the effect it will have on our small rural community - who wouldn't be? We have taken the time to look at all the issues and its been an eye opener in more ways than one!

author by Tompublication date Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:14author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Its easy to dismiss all protesters as NIMBY's - the Government have been doing it for years. The simple fact of the matter is that Thornton Hall is a farm in a small rural community. The people of the area were not consulted and have more or less been told to like it or lump it. The Minister won't even meet with local residents. The roads around the site are small rural roads - the type where you pull over when you meet a car. Is it Nimbyism to want to protect your home and environment? Should the residents just accept a massive development that will change completely the place where they live? Also I take issue with the statement that the protesters 'would be happy to see it go anywhere else' this is most certainly not the case. The group opposing this development have consistently said that a policy to increase the prison population by 000's is wrong - regardless of where the proposed prison is.

Are the Save Tara group Nimby's, the Rossport 5? Take the time to read through the case being put by protesters before labelling them.

author by Greenbackpublication date Thu Sep 01, 2005 16:27author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Speaking of prisons, over on anothr thread it says McDowell might reopen Spike Island prison right beside two toxic incinerators. Its a dead cert that anyone in that prison (screws or prisoners) would be likely to become ill if they are exposed to enough of the pollution. What kind of person would delbierately plan to trap a group of people in a place like that, eh? Will we ever get to the bottom of the nastiness of Mr McDowell.

See:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=71766

author by Papillonpublication date Wed Aug 31, 2005 18:04author address author phone Report this post to the editors

In the United States it is now a big business, and growing. Any attempt to privatise the prison system here must be resisted. If people have to be contained it should not be allowed to become just a meal ticket for investors who would have no real interest in preventing crime, just in lining their own pockets by profiting from human misery. Business by its very nature always seeks new ways of increasing itself, rather than abolishing itself.

author by Terrypublication date Wed Aug 31, 2005 17:48author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Huh, I agree that the prison system should be about rehabilitation, but then the problem goes further than that.

Anyhow, you ought to know that this FF/PD government under the direction of McDowell at Dept of Justice have actually CUT BACK on rehabilitation programs. And there is some small prison somewhere, I can't remember the name, it's not a big place and was near the city centre, but it was kitted out for all sorts of good stuff and it is being closed. No doubt the site will be sold off to developers for apartements.

Regarding Mountjoy, why don't the government just reuse that site? Why should the families have to spend half the day visiting their relatives miles away outside Dublin. It is not only time consuming but expensive. This will lead to further break down in family relationships as both sides are further isolated, thus making the problem worse.

At least Mountjoy was relatively easy to get to for those visiting.

Also not lost is the fact that protests to prisons near city centres are much more visible than ones way way out in the countryside.

Below is some further reading on the prison system, mainly in the US, but there are interesting statistics on it, for the number of prisoners per 100,000 people. BTW Ireland's rate is around 70 to 80 per 100k and rising.

Related Link: http://www.zmag.org/zmag//articles/may01street.htm
author by seanpublication date Wed Aug 31, 2005 16:59author address author phone Report this post to the editors

......then they should at the very least habitable meeting basic human rights needs of prisoners and workers employed in prisons. Mountjoy has to be demolished because the conditions in the prison are appauling. Some cells have five prisoners held in them, locked up for 12 hours, no toilet (a slop bucket instead) imagine 12 hours of a small cell reeking of excrement and urine! Apart from anything else its a health hazard.

I am concerned about the groups who oppose the new prison. They dont want it to be built in their area but will be quiet happy if it goes into another - in other words NIMBYism. The prison should be built - as socialists we should be campaigning for the new prison to be devoted to the rehabilition of prisioners providing training / education opportunities - providing supports for prisoners after they finish their sentences to help them 'get back on their feet' and try to have supports that encourage them not to return.

author by engyhnpublication date Wed Aug 31, 2005 16:25author address author phone Report this post to the editors

are not immediately the types you want to sit down and plan a campaign with on prisoner issues, but....
McDowell, stands a poor chance of being minister for justice in 2008. He is about to leave future ministers and the public a whole rake of problems, ranging from equipment used by gardaí, to the singular lack of a non-garda based study on juvenile offenders, the obvious lack of a proper complaints procedure, and the beginning of "out-sourcing" and privatisation of key elements of penology.
= Get along to all the meetings.

Please - I am not trying to put in a dig against this article or the people protesting. I'm just warning everyone concerned with "one issue" that there is a portfolio of issues which together spell bad news ahead across the board. Get along to all the meetings and see who will be in the flotilla of little opinion makers.

Number of comments per page
  
 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy