Jail Journal

Jail Journal, published by the Prisoners’ Rights Organisation, sought to highlight conditions in the Irish prison system. It sought to position itself as a broad non-party-political civil rights voice. The below extract from the editorial in issue 2 summarises:

The newspaper exposure of the prisons lacked one important thing: an expression of the prisoners’ point of view.

Jail Journal will make up for that. It is written mostly by prisoners and ex-prisoners. Some of the articles had to be smuggled out of jail at the risk of punishment.

The journal will have to be smuggled back in, as it is banned in every prison in Ireland. So much for Civil Rights!

The Minister [Patrick Cooney, the then FG Minister for Justice] has hinted that we are a front for Sinn Féin. This is not so. The Prisoners Rights Organisation is non-political. We welcome members of any part[y] or none, if they are ready to work and fight for prisoners’ rights.