Summer 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System, more commonly known as the Whitaker Report. This comprehensive and insightful examination of Ireland’s penal system has been largely ignored, and it is even hard to find a copy of the report these days, although the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice have done a public service by now making all 365 pages available online at:
https://mega.nz/file/XsZHzKzT#2yUoqP_j8YZ40gJg7_DFArqoW5bOIZTVHSemZAZTE1E
The following 20 quotations give a flavour of the report’s humane philosophy and practical recommendations. An opinion piece in the Irish Times on 1 August 2025 contrasts the Whitaker approach with the current reality of prisons in Ireland – see ‘Articles in the Press’ on this website.
While a doctoral student at Trinity College in the 1970s, Paul O’Mahony also did research for penal reform groups. Then, from 1981 to 1993, he worked in the Prisons Division of the Department of Justice. Word had it that the Department of Justice didn’t really want a social psychologist focused on research – but they got one anyway courtesy of the Civil Service Commission. They were fairly ok with psychologists looking inside people’s heads, but not so keen at looking at wider issues such as the lives those in prison experienced, their backgrounds and the social issues which brought them