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On the 4^th of April, students from the LLM in Criminology, Criminal Justice and Human Rights programme visited Cloverhill Prison as part of their academic engagement with Ireland’s criminal justice system. The students were accompanied by Dr Róisín Mulgrew, LLM Programme Director, as well as Dr Charles O’Mahony and Dr Rory Kelly from the School of Law and the Crime, Punishment and Rights Research Cluster.

Cloverhill is a closed, medium-security prison for adult males, primarily accommodating remand prisoners committed from the Leinster area. It is the largest remand prison in the country.

The visit included a tour of the District Court that adjoins the prison, followed by a guided walk-through of the prison itself.  Dr Conor O’Neill, a forensic psychiatrist who leads the Prison In-Reach and Court Liaison Service (PICLS), provided a tour of D2 Wing and presented on his research into the overrepresentation of prisoners with serious mental health conditions within the Irish prison system.  The students also had the opportunity to meet with the Governor of the Prison, Kevin O’Connell, and Assistant Governor Mary Kennedy, as well as other members of the PICLS team.

During their visit, students were shown D2 Wing of Cloverhill Prison, a specialist unit reserved for prisoners with enhanced medical needs, particularly those experiencing significant mental health problems.  Nearly all of the prisoners housed there were deemed too vulnerable to manage in the general prison population.  The unit consists of a small number of single cells, health isolation rooms, and observation cells, and features bright, open spaces with a central staff control room and a dedicated exercise yard.  Admission to D2 is overseen by Dr O’Neill and his colleagues on the PICLS team.  This service provides intensive psychiatric support alongside care from prison nurses and general practitioners.

The visit also highlighted the important role of the PICLS service in facilitating access to mental health services and supporting transitions for prisoners into the community.  This field trip provided students with a rare and invaluable opportunity to observe firsthand the intersection of law, mental health, and penal policy in practice and the systemic issues arising from the overrepresentation of people with serious mental health problems in Irish prisons.