Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
784. Deputy Paschal Donohoe asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will outline the number of prisoners in prisons here who have been subjected to 56 days disciplinary punishment in 2012; and if he will indicate what entitlements are withdrawn during this period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47780/12]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware Part 3 of the Prisons Act, 2007 provides a basis in primary legislation for disciplinary procedures applicable to prisoners. Section 12 provides for an inquiry to be held by a prison governor if a prisoner is alleged to have committed a breach of discipline. The governor will record the finding and the sanction, or record that the allegation was unsubstantiated. Section 13 lists the sanctions that may be imposed.
Under Section 14, a prisoner who is found by a governor to have committed a breach of prison discipline and on whom a sanction under Section 13 has been imposed, may within 7 days of its imposition, submit a petition to me. I can then either affirm, modify, suspend or revoke the sanction imposed.
Prior to March 2012 the record of each disciplinary inquiry was retained on each individual prisoner file. Therefore, it is not possible to provide the Deputy with the information prior to March as this would require the manual examination of individual records to determine the number who were specifically sanctioned for 56 days. Such an examination would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort and can not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.
However, a new Prisoner Information Management System (PIMS) came into operation in all prisons at the beginning of March 2012 and all disciplinary inquiries are now recorded on this system. Accordingly, I can confirm that since the 2nd March 2012 to date a total of 282 prisoners were subjected to a sanction of 56 days loss of privileges as a disciplinary punishment. The entitlements which are withdrawn during this punishment period include all or part of the following; loss of gym facilities, tuck shop, personal phone calls, personal visits excluding family, receiving or sending personal letters and loss of evening recreation.
The Deputy may be aware the Irish Prison Service has recently introduced new Guidelines on the Imposition of Disciplinary Sanctions in Accordance with the Prison Rules 2007 to provide uniformity in the use of disciplinary sanctions and procedures throughout the Irish Prison Service. Under these guidelines prisoners should not lose the right to communicate with their families and the loss of family visits is not employed as a sanction in response to a breach of prison discipline.
