Prison Accommodation.

Tuesday, 16 October 2007

Questions (466, 467)

Leo Varadkar

Question:

542 Deputy Leo Varadkar asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the cost of imprisonment for an average prisoner each year for each of the past four years in each of Ireland’s prisons; the way this compares with the cost of imprisonment in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and other EU countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23950/07]

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Written answers

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Deputy Brian Lenihan)

The average cost for keeping an offender in each of the last four years are set out in the table.

Cost of Keeping a Prisoner

	2003	2004	2005	2006
	€	€	€	€
Arbour Hill	73,600	70,400	75,600	81,400
Castlerea	75,520	70,000	76,900	76,700
Cork	72,350	75,000	87,700	90,100
Cloverhill	83,300	76,100	84,800	81,600
Curragh	70,100
Dochas		82,800	86,300	87,600
Fort Mitchel	96,050
Limerick	90,200	73,000	75,800	76,900
Loughan House	67,700	63,900	68,500	70,000
Midlands	77,300	75,900	85,300	81,900
Mountjoy	97,900	91,800	100,400	101,200
Portlaoise	232,100	225,200	240,700	247,200
Shelton Abbey	80,100	82,000	80,900	95,200
St Patricks	82,300	79,800	90,700	97,100
Training Unit	71,800	72,300	71,500	82,200
Wheatfield	75,800	71,300	81,100	84,000
Average Cost per Prisoner	87,950	83,800	90,900	91,700

* 2003 Mountjoy figure also includes the Dochas

The average cost of keeping an offender in custody is calculated by averaging out the current running costs of the prisons and places of detention against the average number of offenders in those institutions. These costs include certain items which are fixed no matter what the number of offenders in custody, e.g. utilities, staff salaries, etc. It also reallocates the cost of central services e.g. Headquarters, Prison Service Training Centre, I.T., etc. to each prison institution.

Significant factors in determining prison costs include the size and age of institutions and the regime applied to prisoners. There is no information readily available to me on the precise methodology and procedures in the preparation of figures from other jurisdictions.

Leo Varadkar

Question:

543 Deputy Leo Varadkar asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of prison places in each prison in each of the past ten years for each of the categories (details supplied); his plan to further increase the number of places; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23951/07]

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Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Deputy Brian Lenihan)

Information as requested by the Deputy is illustrated in the table. These Statistics reflect the operational capacity for each prison as at 15 October, 2007 and the same date in previous years.

Prison	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Arbour Hill	141	138	138	139	139	139	140	139	139	139
Castlerea	182	182	182	182	182	201	212	202	206	228
Cloverhill	n/a	n/a	400	406	406	454	433	433	433	431
Cork	270	270	270	270	270	271	271	263	259	272
Curragh	94	94	94	94	94	102	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mountjoy (Female)	60	60	70	70	70	81	81	83	85	85
Fort Mitchel	102	102	102	102	102	102	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Limerick (Female)	12	12	12	16	16	20	20	20	20	20
Limerick (Male)	200	200	200	170	170	167	275	275	271	275
Loughan House	85	85	85	85	85	85	83	110	110	110
Midlands	n/a	n/a	n/a	350	390	456	456	447	447	474
Mountjoy	670	670	670	466	466	454	454	450	480	540
Portlaoise	231	231	231	203	203	205	188	188	188	210
Shanganah	60	60	60	60	60	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Shelton Abbey	58	58	58	30	58	56	56	56	60	60
St. Patrick’s	172	172	220	239	175	198	217	217	217	213
Training unit	96	96	96	94	94	79	96	96	96	96
Wheatfield	360	368	368	368	384	384	372	373	378	372
Total	2,793	2,798	3,256	3,344	3,354	3,454	3,354	3,351	3,389	3,525

Since 1998, the capacity of the prison system has increased by approximately 700 spaces, an increase of 26%. Details on the categories of prisoners accommodated in the various institutions are set out below.

Mountjoy Prison, North Circular Road, Dublin 7

Closed committal prison for males aged 18 years and over. It can accommodate 540 prisoners. It acts as the committal prison for males sentenced in the Dublin area.

Dochas Centre, North Circular Road, Dublin 7.

Closed committal prison for female prisoners aged 18 years and over. It was opened in January 2000 and accommodates approximately 90 female prisoners. It acts as the committal prison for females committed on remand or sentenced from all Courts outside the Munster area.

The Training Unit, Glengarriff Parade, North Circular Road, Dublin 7.

A semi-open institution for just under 100 male prisoners aged 18 years and over. It has been designed with lower levels of internal security. It operates a drug free environment with a strong emphasis on work and training.

Wheatfield Prison, Cloverhill Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.

A closed committal prison for male prisoners aged 18 years and over. It accommodates 372 prisoners and was recently designated as a committal prison for Courts in the North Leinster area.

Limerick Prison, Mulgrave Street, Limerick.

A closed committal prison for male and female prisoners aged 18 years and over. It can accommodate 275 males and 20 female prisoners.

Portlaoise Prison, Dublin Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois.

A high security closed prison for male prisoners aged 18 years and over. The prisoners accommodated there include those linked with subversive crime and it acts as the committal prison for those sent to custody from the Special Criminal Court.

Midlands Prison, Dublin Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois.

A closed prison opened in November 2000 with capacity for 474 male prisoners aged 18 years and over. It is designated as the committal prison for males sentenced in the South Leinster area.

St. Patrick's Institution, North Circular Road, Dublin 7.

A closed institution for male prisoners aged 16 to 21 years of age. It can accommodate 213 prisoners, both remand and sentenced persons.

Shelton Abbey, Arklow, Co. Wicklow.

An open centre for male prisoners aged 19 years and over. It has capacity for 60 prisoners who are regarded as requiring lower levels of security and are either serving short or nearing the end of long sentences.

Cork Prison, Rathmore Road, Cork City, Cork.

A closed committal prison for male prisoners aged 18 years and over. It can accommodate 272 persons.

Loughan House Open Centre, Blacklion, Co. Cavan.

An open centre for male prisoners aged 18 years and over. It can accommodate 110 prisoners who are regarded as requiring lower levels of security and are either serving short or nearing the end of long sentences.

Castlerea Prison, Harristown, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon.

A closed prison for male prisoners aged 18 years and over. It acts as the committal prison for remand and sentenced prisoners in the Ulster and Connaught regions. It can accommodate 228 prisoners, which includes up to 40 prisoners in the semi-open area known as "The Grove".

Cloverhill Prison, Cloverhill Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.

A closed prison for male prisoners aged 18 years and over. It was opened in October 1999 and primarily caters for remand prisoners. It has capacity for 431 prisoners and acts as the committal prison for persons sent to custody on remand in the Leinster area.

Arbour Hill Prison, Arbour Hill, Dublin 7.

A closed prison for male prisoners aged 18 years and over. Its prisoner profile is largely made up of long term sentenced prisoners and sex offenders. It can accommodate 139 prisoners.

Each of the prisons referred to above may accommodate remand prisoners at any time. A major development in the housing of remand prisoners has been the opening of the purpose built remand prison in Cloverhill. Castlerea Prison also has a purpose built remand unit where a number of remand prisoners are contained separately from the rest of the prison population. On 15 October 2007, there were 685 remand prisoners in the system, of which 63% were located in Cloverhill Prison and a further 6% located in Castlerea Prison. The remaining 31% of remand prisoners are accommodated in the other institutions, in particular the Dóchas Centre and Limerick and Cork prisons.

The prisons estate is undergoing an extensive programme of expansion at the present time. In this context, the following developments have taken place or are planned in the near future: over 40 extra spaces will shortly be available at the open centre at Shelton Abbey; a further 60 spaces will shortly be available at the open centre at Loughan House; the new C Block in Portlaoise Prison will provide 138 spaces, with these cells expected to be available in 2008; the new remand wing in Castlerea prison will provide an extra 64 spaces, expected to be available in mid 2008; and a new wing under construction in Wheatfield will increase capacity by 144 spaces, expected to be available in 2009.

In the longer term, the Deputy will be aware of my intention to construct major new prison complexes in North County Dublin and Munster. The new facilities will offer significant improvements in the areas of work training, education and medical services as well as providing predominantly single cell accommodation with in-cell sanitation facilities. These are major undertakings involving replacement of close to 40% of the entire prison estate. They will take a number of years to complete but it is my intention that they will proceed as quickly as possible.