asked the Minister for Justice if it is intended to open a women's prison in the grounds of the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin; if he is satisfied that this development will not interfere with the present facilities of the hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Transfer of Women Prisoners.
416.
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 58 on 27 February.
At the time I referred to an announcement in January by my predecessor and the Minister for Health that a new unit in the grounds of the Central Mental Hospital would, when completed, be transferred to my Department for the use of the prison service. I indicated that the broad purpose of the unit's transfer was to enable facilities to be provided to treat offenders with medical-related problems in modern and hygienic conditions and that, for the foreseeable future, it would be used to cater primarily for female offenders.
Such a move will involve the transfer to the unit of many of the women currently located in Mountjoy and a number from Limerick prison. Because of the small size of the female offender population and the large proportion of them who have medical and related problems the transfer to the unit will mean that there will no longer be any need to accommodate female offenders in Mountjoy. Conditions for female offenders at the prison have been unsatisfactory for some time and the difficulties there have been greatly intensified by the increase in medical and related problems among female offenders.
The regime at the new unit, however, will be different from that which has operated traditionally at the women's prisons and the emphasis at the unit will be on using the extensive modern facilities there to enable the needs of the female offenders, and particularly requirements arising from medical and related problems, to be coped with in a manner which is not possible in the existing traditional prison settings. Accordingly, it would be entirely misleading to characterise the new unit as being a replacement for Mountjoy Prison.
I should make it clear, however, that while, given the nature of the problems of the offenders who will be accommodated at the unit, emphasis will have to be placed on the medical services available to them the unit will not, in any sense, be a hospital. The traditional arrangements whereby the health board provides hospitalisation for offenders in need of it will continue. The women in the unit will be there because of decisions by the courts to confine them in custody and the role of the unit will be to confine them in conditions which can take account of their medical and related needs in a manner which is not possible in a traditional prison setting.
It will be clear, therefore, that while there are factors of security and health involved in both the Central Mental Hospital and the new unit the institutions will fulfill very different roles and, in these circumstances, it is intended that the unit will be run entirely separately from the hospital. To facilitate this it is proposed in the course of a few months to erect a wall around the unit to completely separate it from the rest of the hospital grounds and to provide a separate entrance to it in the perimiter wall (it is hoped that it might be possible initially to run the unit to a limited extent without these works being in place but this is a matter which requires further consideration and discussion).
The relationship between the unit and the hospital would essentially be one of "good neighbours". The unit will form part of the prison service and will be operated by my Department. The hospital will continue to be run by the Eastern Health Board. Prison service staff will not be involved in the operation of the hospital and, equally, hospital staff will not be involved in the operation of the unit. In practical terms the only connection the unit will have with the hospital is that it is located (separately) in the same grounds and that heating etc. supplies will be shared.
In the circumstances, there are no grounds for suggesting that the use of the unit by the prison service will interfere in any way with the existing services to patients at the hospital. As I have indicated the institutions will be physically divided and operate separately. The specific security requirements relating to the unit will not impinge on the patients of the hospital and are not expected to be any more intensive in kind than those which already apply in respect of the hospital itself. Indeed, in relation to some individual patients who have attended the hospital the level of security which has been applied to them has been far higher than anything envisaged as appropriate for any of the women who will be housed in the unit.
Given the difficulties at present in providing appropriate facilities for many of the women in custody I am anxious that the transfer of the unit should proceed as quickly as possible.