John Gormley
Question:175 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if juvenile offenders are still imprisoned with adult offenders; if this practice will continue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22825/99]
Written Answers. - Juvenile Offenders.
For the purposes of this question, juvenile offenders are taken to be those under the age of 18 years. Male offenders aged 16 and 17, and up to the age of 21, may be committed on remand or to serve a period of detention at St. Patrick's Institution. Male offenders aged 17 years and over may be committed on remand or sentenced to imprisonment to the five adult committal prisons – Mountjoy, Cork, Limerick, Portlaoise and Castlerea. Sentenced male offenders aged 16 and 17 may be transferred from any of the five adult committal prisons and from St. Patrick's Institution to Wheatfield Place of Detention, Fort Mitchel and Shanganagh Castle to serve their sentences. When the new remand prison at Cloverhill is fully operational, all male remand offenders will be held there, including juveniles who will be accommodated separate from adults.
Female offenders aged 17 years and over may be committed on remand or sentenced to imprisonment to Mountjoy and Limerick Women's Prisons. However, very few female offenders aged 17 years are committed to penal institutions each year. There were two females aged 17 in custody on Monday 8 November.
While every effort is made to segregate 16 and 17 year old offenders from the general prison population in each institution at all times, this is not always possible due to pressures of overcrowding and the high turnover of inmates. Those held in the more traditional adult prisons are accommodated with other young offenders or with carefully selected older prisoners.
The legal provisions for the committal of young offenders under the age of 18 years will change on enactment of the Children Bill, 1996 which proposes that where a court imposes a sentence of detention on a child, it shall, (a) where the child is under 16 years of age, order the child to be detained in a children's detention school – operated by the Department of Education and Science; (b) where the child is 16 or 17 years of age, order the child to be detained in a place of detention – provided by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Under the provisions of the Bill, separate, dedicated secure detention centres will be required for the accommodation of male and female child – 16 and 17 years – offenders and these will be provided. The director general of the Prison Service is currently examining the feasibility of providing two dedicated secure child detention centres, one in the Dublin area and one in the Munster area.