Life on the inside

Life on the inside

The Governor of Mountjoy, John Lonergan, told Mayo students about prison life and of how lives can be ruined in an instant

Neill O’Neill

“I’ve been in jail all my life and it is the most horrifying, difficult, frustrating and humiliating place you can be. I’ve seen lots in my time and I see things in a different light than most people.”
He may never have been incarcerated, but John Lonergan has spent over 40 years working in the Irish prison system during which time the Tipperary man confesses that he has seen it all.
Last Wednesday he imparted his experiences to a captivated student audience in Sancta Maria College in Louisburgh, who sat transfixed for an hour as the genial Governor of Mountjoy Prison told them of incidents and places few dare to imagine.
His talk was entitled ‘Crime from a social justice perspective’, but it was simply a fascinating insight into the life of a prisoner in Ireland’s most talked-about jail – throughout which several very worthy social messages permeated.
“The media often misrepresent crime and the true number of people in custody,” he began, before stating that there are approximately 3,300 to 3,400 people in custody in Ireland on any one day. Their offences range in severity from not paying the correct bus fare to rape and murder. He added that what he does agree with the media on is that Ireland and society here have become much more violent in recent years.
“Prison violence, similarly, has increased by 200 per cent in the past five years,” he said.
“Prison is a horrible existence, it is a punishment and not a place anyone should want to be,” he said, managing to sound more like he was giving friendly advice than a warning or a lecture. Recounting the story of one homeless man who upon being told he was free to go refused to leave Mountjoy as it was snowing outside, he said: “Nobody rolls through a prison sentence, except the few who have nothing on the outside and consider prison a better option.”
“Just think what it would be like if somebody locked you in your room for 17 hours a day and you were unable to do a simple thing like get yourself a glass of water,” he said to the audience. “Then at 8am you were let out to clean out your toilet pan and have a shower in communal facilities before being locked up again to eat breakfast in your cell.”
Prisoners spend 17 hours a day locked in their cells and while some get out to go to work or education classes, there is simply not enough jobs for everyone. The rest remain locked in their cells, which they share, and in prison, according to John Lonergan, there is no such thing as a quiet or private moment.
During the course of his address, Mr Lonergan made no attempt to hide the shortcomings of the Irish prison system.
“People have difficulty adjusting socially once they leave prison. A simple thing like sitting around a table for a meal is alien to them. We don’t do a great job of rehabilitating in Irish prisons. People leave in poor physical and financial condition and with criminal records – often for the simplest or most trivial incident – which they are left to rue for the rest of their lives.
“We are all prone to that one moment of madness, where we get involved where we shouldn’t or lash out. It happens every weekend on the streets of Ireland and every week people’s lives are ruined and families are torn apart. We all remember the incident outside the Burlington Hotel where Brian Murphy lost his life. That is just one example. I’ve met people in prison who were some of the finest and most talented people – whose lives were ruined in the blink of an eye. It’s a tragedy but one that can be so easily avoided.
“At 15 or 16 years of age you might get drunk some night and do something stupid which can haunt you in so many ways. You might miss out on J1 trips to America or jobs because of it – but the worst thing of all, some of them have told me, are the nightmares and flashbacks which never leave your mind. These are decent people, not criminals, whose lives changed in a single moment of madness. Girls tend to be more mature than boys and I appeal to you all to walk away. You never know who the other person is and while you could be correct in your motive you could still end up the innocent victim. I’ve seen it so often so I appeal to you to stop and think. It could change your life.”
Drugs were another major topic of conversation during the one-hour talk, where Mr Lonergan divulged some of the ‘ingenious’ ways in which drugs find their way into Mountjoy. Between 80 and 85 per cent of the population of his prison have a history of heroin addiction, and 240 prisoners rely on methadone maintenance in their battle against what he calls the ‘dirty drug’.
Nets over the yard to prevent tennis balls filled with drugs finding their way in were effective only until addicts and friends of prisoners started filling tomatoes, eggs and ice cubes with them, and launching them onto the nets. When the ice melted the drugs would fall into the yard, or similarly, when birds picked the tomatoes to pulp the drugs would fall down. “Some people and dealers are ingenious in their methods,” he said “and will stop at nothing to flood the prison with drugs.”
In telling the story of one 19-year-old female prisoner who was hopelessly addicted to heroin, it became apparent that the tragedy brought about by drug abuse is something that has clearly touched John Lonergan. It also brought his final message to the students.
“She was on day release and was supposed to sign on every Friday but she didn’t for one full year and was officially declared unlawfully at large,” he said. “I assumed all sorts of reasons why she didn’t come back and then one day she showed up again out of the blue and told me that since she was last here she had fallen pregnant but didn’t know and had been living rough and continuing to abuse heroin. Her baby was born two months premature and weighed three pounds. When the nurse brought her down to see him in the hospital what met her was a tiny child in an incubator, all tubed up and shaking violently. He was born with a chronic heroin addiction and was going though the withdrawals of that addiction. It was a scenario I hadn’t considered and what I learnt that day was never assume anything and always get two sides to every story.
“That girl had simply taken a wrong turn in life and it spiralled out of control on her. She said she would never be able to forgive herself for what she had done to her own child.”