‘Trust is broken’ - councillors
REVIEW Minister to be asked to look at type of prisoners sent to Loughan House
The council is to ask Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, and the head of the Irish Prison Service to review the policy for allocating prisoners to Blacklion-based Loughan House.
It follows the latest spate of prisoners absconding from the Cavan open prison - two in as many weeks- one of whom went on the run for two weeks during which time it's alleged he was involved in a series of crimes.
The man, aged in his 40s, and who has more than 100 previous convictions, walked out of Loughan House in early October, and in the immediate hours after, was suspected of stealing vehicles; while he is also suspected of involvement in a robbery also took place shortly after his escape.
Speaking at last Monday's monthly meeting of Cavan County Council, Fianna Fail's John Paul Feeley said that Loughan House generally caters for 140 prisoners, the majority of whom are heading towards “the end of sentence or are there for low risk offences”.
While accepting that none of the inmates at the open prison are there “for being altar boys”, the prisoner who absconded in October and went on a “rampant” crime spree had a “resume” that Cllr Feeley felt would not merit such a lenient system of incarceration.
The local councillor was at pains to stress that there has been “good engagement” between the community and Loughan House down through the years, with various successful initiatives such as the prison cafe and garden centre.
“I think there needs to be a discussion,” said Cllr Feeley, who acknowledged that there had been “issues in the past”.
He continued by stating that it was “hard to understand” how a person such as the prisoner who absconded was placed at Loughan House.
“We need to ensure good relations are maintained.”
His motion was supported by Aontú's Sarah O'Reilly who noted that the open prison system is “based on trust”.
But she stated that the community also needed to trust Loughan House.
“The trust is broken,” stated Independent Brendan Fay.
There was support too from Cllrs Patricia Walsh and Clifford Kelly (FF) and from Fine Gael's Peter McVitty.