Kinlen called for the immediate closure of St Patrick's Institution for young offenders, describing it as "a finishing school" for criminality, and criticised the current policy of placing refugees awaiting deportation in prison.

The Inspector's reports are known for their colourful language and this, his fourth annual report, is no different.

Describing McDowell as "hyperactive, " Kinlen is extremely critical of the Minister for Justice and his failure to reform the prison system.

These are some extracts.

"St. Patrick'sf for economic reasons, all the workshops were closed. The place was a training ground for criminality. Young men aged 17 to 21 were locked up in practical terms for 17 to 18 hours per day. Then they have access to dreary yards, inadequate schooling and no workshops at all.

"The Minister's reaction was that everything was being transferred to Thornton Hall, which is the new panaceaf The present situation is a continuing disaster.

"It is appalling that in this day and age the only place for juvenile offenders in the entire country is now confined to St Patrick's Insitution, which Dr Whitaker pointed out is totally unsuitable for its present purpose. It now means that young persons from Buncrana, Castletownbere, Ballyferriter, etc. seldom if ever had visits from their families because the distance and the cost is too great and this adds to the sense of despair.

"It will be appreciated that there are 198 persons in St Patrick's and only 31 go to school.

No wonder the 'Dubs' and the 'Culchies' attack each other, there is not much else to do in this home of boredom.

"It was clear that the minister was merely using St Patrick's (which had originally been a school in Clonmel) as a warehouse for young people who learned the finer points of criminality in St Patrick's, which almost certainly guaranteed their progression into the 'university' of Mountjoy. It was a shameful exercise.

***** "A prisoner in the Midlands, under the guidance of his creative-writing teacher, wrote a play and played the lead role. It was a poweful but depressing play. All parts were played by prisoners, it was called The Masterpiece. It was put on in Mountjoy prison as part of the fringe activities of the Dublin Theatre Festival. I brought Mr Justice and Lady Butterfield of the English High Court to see the play. Mr Justice Butterfield asked: "will we get into Mountjoy?" as he had heard the reputation of it being overcrowded. I promised him I would get him in. His next concern was whether I could get him out, I gave him reassurance. It was a marvellous evening. Lady Butterfield insisted on buying the painting produced by the chief actor (which was the 'masterpiece'). Money which she is giving for it, will be used for a prisoner charity."

***** "There is absolutely no education there [Cloverhill Prison] even though the classrooms have been provided. These classrooms have been taken over by the prison transport corps. This is supposed to be a temporary arrangementf The present arrangement is just deplorable."

***** "I know the current minister well, having sat beside him for many years. He is a hyperactive minister."

***** "Surely, we should have inspectors who are more independent investigating everything, like my counterpart in Belfastf It is with great sadness I am writing this report. I think it is fair to ask, what are the minister and his department hiding? Of what are they afraid?"

***** "The government put a cap on the increase of civil servants in the year 2002. This has been clearly breached by the Justice minister and his departmentf The minister has his own special advisors.

He has an assistant secretary in charge of the prison section (policies etc) in the department. He has the advisory group of excellent people giving him advice.

He then has the Prison Board. He also has the director general of the Prison Service, who has at least seven directors under him, most of whom have two subdirectors, most of whom have two managers, then two submanagers and so on right down the line. There used to be 120 Civil Servants involved, but I gather this number has now increased substantially since the 'capping' by the government."

***** "It is very difficult and, as the minister says, regrettable that figures are not available [on recidivism]. If there were any underemployed person in the prison section of the department (and there might be! ) he or she should be able to work out the number of recidivists in the system.

However, they may complain that they are not literate enough and are depending on computers. We know a fortune has been wasted on computers for the prison which are obsolete and have to be scrapped. However, each prisoner has a number and it is recorded. He/she carries that number through life.

Surely, even a semi-literate would be able in a very short time to check in each prison how many prisoners had been imprisoned previously."

***** "Prisoners for deportation or extradition should not be held in Cloverhill or any other prison.

They have not been sentenced, they do not deserve to be criminalised as all they wanted to do was share the 'Irish dream'. Is this a crime? Surely a premises near the airport could be used to contain them before their departure."

***** "The minister wants 'drug-free prisons' not 'drug-free sections' of prisons. In the real world, one has to accept that addicts are extremely adroit in getting a supply of drugsf Once a drug gets into a prison, it causes chaos."

***** "We have to get rid of the 'haves' and 'have nots'. We must be a real 'caring' society. Poverty, lack of education, inadequate parenting skills, with early exposure to drugs are chronic in our society.

All causes of poverty should be history."