Dóchas Centre
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The Dóchas Centre ( Irish: ''lárionad le Dóchas'') is a closed, medium security prison, for females aged 18 years and over, located in
Mountjoy Prison Mountjoy Prison (), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed The Joy, is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current prison Governor is Ray Murtagh. History Mountjoy was designed by Cap ...
in Dublin, Ireland. It is also the committal prison for females committed on remand or sentenced from all Courts outside the
Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
area of Ireland. Dóchas is one of two women's prisons in Ireland, the other is located in
Limerick Prison Limerick Prison in Limerick is an Irish penal institution. It is a closed, medium security prison, and has an official capacity of 290 male beds and 20 female beds. The average daily number of male inmates in 2009 was 298 and of female inmates ...
. It has a staff of 88 not including teachers, chaplains, nurses, probation and welfare, doctors, psychiatrists and counsellors. ' is Irish for hope making the literal name of the prison ''"Centre for Hope."'' In 2022, the prison was renamed to Mountjoy Female Prison.


History

Mountjoy Female Prison opened in 1858 and has been the largest female prison in the country ever since. In 1956 the female prison at Mountjoy was given over to young male offenders and became St. Patrick's Institution. The small numbers of women at the time were moved to a basement of one wing of St Patrick's Institution. Female prisoners were detained in the basement until 1990 when they were moved into one wing of St Patrick's Institution. The wing was used for female prisoners until 1999 when women moved into the Dóchas Centre. A campus style female prison within Mountjoy Prison, Dóchas was designed for twice the number of female prisoners that the old wing of St. Patrick's Institution could accommodate.


Ethos

The
ethos ''Ethos'' is a Greek word meaning 'character' that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the ...
of the centre is for inmates to live as close as possible to a life in ordinary accommodation. The prison operates with inmates expected to behave in the same way as one would manage their own home in relation to cleaning, cooking, laundering etc. The regimes within the centre is on training and development. These activities are structured like a normal working day. Staff are encouraged to wear civilian clothing rather than
uniform A uniform is a variety of costume worn by members of an organization while usually participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency serv ...
s.


Accommodation and Facilities

Prisoners are accommodated in seven separate houses with each house accommodating ten to twelve people except for one called Cedar which can accommodate eighteen women. The pre-release centre called Phoenix accommodates women in private rooms or in self-contained studio apartments. Inmates live in en-suite rooms with keys to their rooms meaning they can move about relatively freely. Houses are locked at 7.30pm with all the women in the prison being locked into their rooms at that time except for women in Cedar and Phoenix Houses. Houses and rooms are unlocked at 7.30am. Prisoners organise their own breakfasts in the kitchens of the houses and eat lunch with prison staff in the dining room with an evening meal being served in the dining room at 5pm. Each house has a kitchen/dining room with sitting room facility which contains a television and reading material. Mothers are permitted to keep new born babies with them in the centre but when the children reach 12 months old, they must leave the prison.


Education and training programmes

The centre offers training and education programmes to inmates. These include:-
hairdressing A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A hairdresser may also be r ...
, beauty therapy and photography as well as
FETAC The Further Education and Training Awards Council () or FETAC was a statutory qualification-awarding body for further education in Ireland. It was established on 11 June 2001 under the Qualifications (Education and Training) Act 1999. FETAC was d ...
programmes and Leaving and Junior Cert courses. There is a gym which runs aerobic classes and a sport and fitness programme as well as an outdoor basketball court. There is also a Health Care Unit staffed by nurses and a doctor with a visiting
psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, mood, emotion, and behavior. Initial psychiatric assessment of ...
and dental service.


Prisoner profile

The centre holds women on remand, women awaiting sentencing, sentenced prisoners, and women detained under immigration legislation. The director-general of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell, categorised the inmates as a quarter serving sentences for murder,
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
or conspiracy to murder, another quarter serving sentences of over a year for robbery, theft or criminal-damage offences with a 20% plus serving sentences for possession of drugs for the purpose of supply. Drugs are a problem with inmates with
cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
being the most common although E tablets have been found. Approximately 30% of the prisoners are on
methadone Methadone, sold under the brand names Dolophine and Methadose among others, is a synthetic opioid used medically to treat chronic pain and opioid use disorder. Prescribed for daily use, the medicine relieves cravings and opioid withdrawal sym ...
maintenance. Although the prison is designated to accommodate females over 18 years of age, there has been cases of juveniles being remanded to the centre.


Controversies


Prisoner pictures in the media

In August 2008, pictures taken on a mobile phone appeared in the media of
Scissor sisters Scissor Sisters are an American pop rock band formed in 2000. The band's current line-up consists of Jake Shears (vocals), Babydaddy (various instruments), Del Marquis (guitar, bass) and Randy Real (drums). Former members include vocalist A ...
killers, Charlotte Mulhall holding a knife to a male inmate's throat. The resulting fallout led to a security audit being carried out at the prison with the installation of walk through detectors and
X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
scanners at the prison. Mulhall herself was transferred to Limerick Prison.
Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...
justice spokesman
Charles Flanagan Charles Flanagan (born 1 November 1956) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Justice and Equality from 2017 to 2020, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence from 2020 to 2024, Minister for Foreign A ...
said: ''"Prisoners are holding up two fingers to the criminal justice system and these pictures show that prison security is a shambles. It beggars belief that a convicted knife murderer would be allowed access to a potentially lethal kitchen knife".'' Labour Party justice spokesman
Pat Rabbitte Pat Rabbitte (born 18 May 1949) is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources from 2011 to 2014, Leader of the Labour Party from 2002 to 2007 and a Minister of State from 19 ...
asked ''"How is it that a prisoner convicted of a particularly gruesome murder was apparently in possession of what appears to be a potentially lethal knife?"''


Overcrowding controversy

Dochas is designed to accommodate 85 prisoners but frequently runs at 136 per cent capacity, around 115 prisoners. In April 2010 Governor Kathleen McMahon announced her resignation as governor of the Dochas Centre fearing a reversion to "self-mutilation, bullying, depression and lesbianism". One of the features of the prison was that each prisoner had their own room. In the weeks leading up to her resignation there were cases where five inmates were sharing a room. The resignation was as a result of a failure by the Department of Justice to consult her about putting in bunk beds to hold more prisoners. As of June 2010, 106 inmates were in custody with a further 73 inmates on temporary release. Overcrowding has been compounded by homelessness with some prisoners being granted release refusing to leave as they have nowhere to live. In one case an inmate who was granted early release was arrested after trying to break in by scaling the gate of the prison to return to the centre.


High profile inmates

The centre has housed and continues to house a number of high-profile inmates, these include:- *
Shell to Sea Shell to Sea () is an Irish organisation based in the parish of Kilcommon in Erris, County Mayo. It opposes the proposed construction of a natural gas Gas pipeline, pipeline through the parish, as well as the ongoing construction—by Royal Du ...
activist,
Maura Harrington Maura Harrington (born 15 September 1953) is a spokesperson for the Shell to Sea campaign, from County Mayo, Ireland. A retired school principal of Inver National School, she has been jailed on a number of occasions for her involvement in Shell ...
. * Catherine Nevin *
Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters are an American pop rock band formed in 2000. The band's current line-up consists of Jake Shears (vocals), Babydaddy (various instruments), Del Marquis (guitar, bass) and Randy Real (drums). Former members include vocalist A ...
killers Linda and Charlotte Mulhall and their mother.


Future

There are plans to replace the Dóchas Centre with a new women's prison as part of the planned Thornton Hall prison complex.


See also

* Prisons in Ireland *
Administrative detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dochas Centre 1999 establishments in Ireland Prisons in the Republic of Ireland Penal system in the Republic of Ireland Women's prisons in Ireland