Vol. 491 No. 2
73 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will provide details of finances devoted to research in relation to medium and long-term projections of the number of prison places required; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11506/98]
The management within the prisons division of my Department in conjunction with local prison management carry out continual reviews of medium and long-term projections of the number of prison places required.
The following is the basis of the management reviews: (1) ongoing review of prison place requirements; (a) the number of prisoners being committed; (b) the length of sentence; (c) offences for which prisoners are committed; (d) special requirements regarding security, medical requirements, etc. and (2) review of the impact on accommodation requirements of the implementation of the constitutional referendum on bail.
In 1997 an independent study was carried out for my Department by Mr Paul O'Mahony, Ph. D. The study titled "Mountjoy Prisoners, A Sociological and Criminological Profile", contains statistical and other information which assists management with their ongoing review. The cost of commissioning this report was £26,500 plus VAT.
A tender competition was recently held with a view to upgrading the prisons computer systems. One of the benefits of this new system will be the availability of extensive management information on prisoners, which will further assist in the projecting of prisoner numbers.
I should like, however, to sound a note of caution in regard to projections of this kind. Experience in other jurisdictions has shown that it is extremely difficult to produce reliable prison population projections.
