'Overcrowding just makes everything more complicated': Concern as Cork Prison operates over capacity

If the Government followed its own policies on drugs and alcohol use, prisons would not be overcrowded, a former inmate has said.

Cork Prison saw 355 people in custody on Friday last week, a record high, and figures have risen even higher since, with 361 in custody at the beginning of this week. This represents 122% capacity, with 65 people sleeping on the floor.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) told The Echo at the end of August that 67% of people in custody in Cork were waiting for, or engaging in, addiction services.

James Leonard, known for The Two Norries podcast, told The Echo: “The prison service is a terrible option for people in addiction.

“In Ireland, there are 800 people on waiting lists for addiction and 2,000 for psychological services.

“If you’re in prison under 12 months, you get out before you get off the waiting list for any services. In my case, all my sentences were less than 12 months, but I was in and out — you can go your whole life constantly slipping through the cracks.

“Overcrowding just makes everything more complicated. When you have more prisoners, the staff are more stretched, and facilitating outside organisations to come in is difficult. It’s all condensed because security trumps everything.”

Mr Leonard continued: “We’re talking about a health-led approach to drug use. In this election, Fianna Fáil are talking about decriminalisation, but Simon Harris got stuck into them, saying it’s not going to happen.

“We commissioned a citizens’ assembly, an Oireachtas committee, there were recommendations published but no action taken — why did we go through the democratic process at all?”

He added: “I was teaching in Cork Prison on Friday and it’s gone very overcrowded. 

“I was showing the lads there the drug strategy about a health-led response and they asked: ‘What does that mean?’ 

“I explained that instead of the criminal justice system, the health system would deal with drug issues and they said: ‘But that’s not what happens.’ And they’re right.”

Mr Leonard explained that decriminalisation has been a success in Portugal but “a disaster” in Oregon.

“The difference is, in Portugal, they had record HIV rates and record incarceration, but they had a left government who tried a radical response — the money that was invested in criminal justice was all put into social justice groups.

“In Oregon, they decriminalised drugs but put nothing in lieu of it, and now there’s just open drug use on the streets that nobody is dealing with.”

Similarly, he said: “In Cork, the old psychiatric hospitals were all closed and all the people who were in them are in Cork Prison now — they went from Shanakiel straight to the Glen.”

Mr Leonard suggested: “We need to see an increase in community sanctions, referring people to probation services, which can put them in touch with groups like Cork Alliance, and we need to be investing more in these projects.

“If you let people serve their sentence in the community for non-violent offences, get them to do an educational course or go to residential treatment, you could change the trajectory of people’s lives. 

“In prison, you’re exposed to more drugs, more violence, more criminality — it can just make things worse.”

He added: “There was a great study done in Cork by Dr Graham Cambridge, of UCC, which found that when people got recovery for addiction, desistance from crime followed naturally.”

A spokesperson for the IPS said it “provides a healthcare service for prisoners with addictions in a structured, safe, and professional way in line with international best practice”.

It is also “committed to the National Drugs Strategy”.

The spokesperson added: “It is the policy of the Irish Prison Service that, where a person committed to prison gives a history of opiate use and tests positive for opioids, they are offered a medically assisted, symptomatic detoxification.”