Prison Committals.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 November 2008

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Questions (295, 296)

Charles Flanagan

Question:

374 Deputy Charles Flanagan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average number of prisoners held in State prisons in the years 2001 to date in 2008; and his estimate of recidivism or of repeat offenders within the total prison population in each of those years. [39760/08]

Written answers

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Deputy Dermot Ahern)

The statistics as requested by the Deputy are set out in the following table.

Year	Average Number
2001	3,112
2002	3,165
2003	3,176
2004	3,199
2005	3,151
2006	3,191
2007	3,321
2008 (up to 6 November)	3,525

The Government's significant investment in modernising our prisons over the lifetime of this Government has resulted in the provision of some 1300 new prison spaces. This investment, combined with the additional prison spaces coming on stream over the next number of months at Castlerea, Portlaoise and Wheatfield Prisons will add further to our prison capacity to meet current demands. The Thornton Hall Complex and the proposed new Munster prison will further enhance the quality of our prison accommodation, allow for increased single cell usage and offer significant improvements in the areas of work training, education, medical services and in-cell sanitation.

I wish to advise the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service recently facilitated a major study of prisoner re-offending by the UCD Institute of Criminology. The study found that 27.4% of released prisoners were serving a new prison sentence within one year. This rose to 39.2% after two years, 45.1% after three years, and 49.2% after four years.

Charles Flanagan

Question:

375 Deputy Charles Flanagan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of offences resulting in imprisonment (details supplied) for each year for the past five years; and the average time spent in prison under each heading over the same timeframe. [39761/08]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Deputy Dermot Ahern)

The following information is taken from the Annual Reports of the Irish Prison Service for the years 2003 to 2006 and from available information which will be included in the 2007 report. While the statistics are not categorised in the exact format requested by the Deputy, it is assumed that the information given will be useful.

Year	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003
Group 1
Offences against the person	882	780	689	970	746
Murder	19	17	17	30	33
Manslaughter	19	18	9	19	19
Sexual Offences	116	90	93	91	121
Other Offences against the person	728	655	570	830	573
Assault	361	343	N/A	N/A	N/A
Assault causing harm	206	155
Assault on Garda	27	32
Assault O.A.B.H.	20	26
Other offences	114	99
Group 2
Offences against property with violence	41	63	84	182	233
Group 3
Offences against property without violence	1,744	1,562	1,200	1,130	1,003
Theft	687	602	N/A	N/A	N/A
Criminal Damage	330	308
Burglary (full)	190	115
Robbery	166	99
Handling Stolen Property	89	92
Entering Building with intent to commit offence	70	61
Other offences in this category	212	285
Group 4
Other Offences	3,788	3,397	3,115	2,782	3,428
Drug Offences	530	395	279	278	306
Road Traffic Offences	1,564	1,452	1,357	1,296	1,463
No Insurance	711	671	N/A	N/A	N/A
Drunken Driving	189	130
Dangerous Driving	105	69
Unauthorised taking of MPV	91	75
Non Display of Disc	100	42
No Driving Licence	52	38
Unauthorised Carriage in/on MPV	37	25
Other Road Traffic Offences	279	402
Other Offences	1,694	1,550	1,479	1,208	1,659
Threatening/Abusive/Insulting Behaviour	481	461	N/A	N/A	N/A
Debtor Offences	214	194
Intoxication in Public	135	113
Failure to comply with Garda	136	56
Possession of Knives & other articles	76	69
Failing to appear	79	52
Breach of Barring Order	59	47
Failed to make Income Tax returns	24	30
Breach of the Peace	30	24
Other Offences	460	504

I am advised that it is not possible to provide information in relation to the average amount of time spent in custody under each category as its collation would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort which cannot be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.