Sir, – When the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System, chaired by TK Whitaker, published its landmark report in 1985 it bemoaned “the triple depressant of overcrowding, idleness and squalor which dominates most Irish prisons”.

The prison population at the time was 1,863.

Yesterday, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment condemned the State’s tardiness in implementing reform recommendations (“Failures of State’s torture prevention mechanisms criticised,” Home News, November 12th).

The same day, our prisons held 5,669 people, 557 of whom were sleeping on mattresses on cell floors. These squalid and cramped conditions are degrading and dangerous.

The Government is committed to a programme of prison building. This will take time, cost a fortune, and do nothing to address the underlying drivers of prison population growth.

The way forward is to use prison as a last resort, to hold anyone sent there in decent conditions where they can avail of therapeutic services, and to adopt a more generous approach to early release. This was the approach recommended by the Whitaker committee 40 years ago and the passage of time has not made it any less compelling. – Yours, etc,

IAN O’DONNELL MRIA,

Professor of Criminology,

(Author of Prison Life: Pain, Resistance, and Purpose),

University College Dublin.

Take 10, Fintan

Sir – Fintan O’Toole’s cogent article “The State is unified on not wanting to talk about unity,” (November 11th) could perhaps be summed up briefly: Irish unity is about 10 years away, and always will be. – Yours, etc,

RODNEY DEVITT,

Sandymount,

Dublin 4.

Presidential inauguration

Sir, – The inauguration of Catherine Connolly as the 10th President of Ireland was another example of the exclusionary tendencies of this State.