Paul Howard - The Joy. Mountjoy Jail. The shocking, true story of life on the inside

It was a late-night call to a radio phone-in programme which inspired me to write this book. There is no point in sending people to jail in this country, an irate member of the public said. Sure, Mountjoy is just a holiday camp anyway.

This view of Mountjoy Prison does not accord with the facts as recorded by the prisons visiting committee and the Department of Justice, which show Mountjoy to be an institution where, every year, an average of three people take their own lives; where, it is claimed, 65 percent of the inmates at any given time are using illegal drugs; where prisoners are confined to small and often over-crowded cells for up to sixteen hours of each day; and where bullying and violent beatings are known to occur among prisoners, with the victims usually too frightened to report anything to the prison authorities.

Mountjoy Prison does not match the blueprint of what a modern prison should be. Its structure is Victorian and, in some ways, the regime that operates is just as antiquated. The day begins for the prisoners at 8.15am when their cell doors are unlocked and they are ordered to get up, wash, shave, dress and then slop out. This involves bringing their chamber pots down to the toilets, emptying them and cleaning them out. The practice of slopping out has been abandoned in most modern prisons and, while in-cell sanitation exists in the womens prison, the main prison itself lags behind though prisoners have access to toilets until 11pm. After slopping out, the prisoners then queue for breakfast which they eat in their cells. There is no communal dining area in Mountjoy.

The cell doors are unlocked again at 9.15am when the prisoners are let out for two hours of recreation or work. In recent times, there has been a lot more of the former than the latter, since the traditional services offered by prisons, such as wood chopping and mailsack sewing, are less in demand. The prison authorities maintain that around half of the prisoners have either work, PE or school to occupy them. However, a report this year by the prisons visiting committee contradicted this figure, saying that 500 of the 600-650 inmates were engaged in daily idleness. They can play snooker, pool, table tennis or chess instead. Most choose to hang around and talk, either in the yard or the hallways where opportunities for drug trafficking occur.

Lunch is served at 1pm and again is eaten in the cells. From 2pm until 4.30 or 4.40pm, the prisoners are out of their cells for rec/work, they eat tea in their cells and are then allowed two hours of television together until 7.20 or 7.40pm when they have their supper and are locked up until the following morning.

Given this daily schedule, the potential for violence is considerable. One prison worker I spoke to during the course of writing this book told me: People complain about the drug problem inside Mountjoy. Drugs are the only thing keeping the lid on the prison. Without heroin, wed have dozens of strung-out addicts walking around here every day and the place would be unmanageable. It would explode.

Official prison policy on drugs whether heroin, hash or hooch, the illegal drink that has been brewed in the prison for generations is that they are confiscated at all times. Significant resources are put into trying to stop drugs coming into the prison, says prison Governor John Lonergan.

Until recently, the average heroin addict serving a sentence in Mountjoy was offered little or no assistance in coming off drugs. A basic two-week detoxification programme is now offered, followed by a course of Valium to combat the sleeplessness that goes with withdrawal. Critics say that this is totally insufficient. There is a further, more fundamental problem. Detoxification programmes in general have an enormous failure rate, says the Governor. The important thing to remember is that addicts have to want to be treated and most dont.

The prison authorities accept the fact that, of the 600-650 prisoners who are in Mountjoy at any one time, approximately 200 are drug users. A report by the prisons visiting committee in May 1996 suggested a much higher figure. About 65 percent of Mountjoys male population are using illegal drugs, it said, though the Governor disputes these figures.

The publics view of Mountjoy Prison has been limited by the fact that little or nothing has ever been written before about the day-to-day reality of being a prisoner in the jail. What little information exists on Mountjoy comes to us through Department of Justice or visiting committee reports on overcrowding, suicide, drug abuse, etc. I wanted to write a book about life inside from the perspective of the only people who know what living in Mountjoy is really like, the prisoners themselves.