Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 December 2012
348. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the steps that are being taken in the Prison Service to segregate first time offenders from repeat offenders and provide rehabilitative training with a view to preventing recidivism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55687/12]
View answer349. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of first time offenders committed to prison in each of the past five years and to date in 2012; the extent if any to which such prisoners were able to access segregation from repeat offenders and gain access to education and or rehabilitative training within the first year of their sentence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55688/12]
View answer350. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of repeat offenders serving sentence in each of the past five years to date who have accessed education or rehabilitative training within the first year of their current sentence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55689/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 348 to 350, inclusive, together.
On committal, all prisoners are interviewed by the Governor and based on the information available, a decision is made by the Governor, as to where a particular prisoner will be accommodated. In some instances, prisoners are transferred to other establishments.
Given the number of prisoners in custody it is not possible to segregate those who are in prison for the first time from those who have been in custody on more than one occasion. It must be borne in mind that a persons first period of imprisonment does not necessarily indicate a first offence.
Efforts are made, where possible to segregate remand prisoners from sentenced prisoners. In addition, prisoners who are vulnerable or have requested the protection of the Governor are segregated from the general prison population. Every effort is made to ensure that those prisoners who cannot associate freely with the general prison population have the greatest possible access to services.
The statistics requested by the Deputy are not centrally recorded by the Irish Prison Service and to provide such information would require the allocation of a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and resources.
The Deputy will be aware from my replies to previous Parliamentary Questions that the Irish Prison Service provides a wide range of rehabilitative programmes that include education, vocational training, healthcare, psychiatric, psychological, counselling, welfare and spiritual services. These programmes are available in all prisons and all prisoners are eligible to use the services. On committal, all prisoners are interviewed by the Governor and are informed of the services available in the prison. At this point prisoners may be referred to services or they can self refer at a later date. Where Governors consider, on the information available, that a prisoner needs a particular intervention they will initiate a referral.
The development of prisoner programmes forms a central part of the new Irish Prison Service Three Year Strategic Plan 2012 - 2015. There is a clear commitment in the Strategy to enhance sentence planning including Integrated Sentence Management and the delivery of prison based rehabilitative programmes such as education, work training and resettlement programmes.
An average of 38% of the prison population attended educational classes in 2011. The development of vocational training programmes in recent years means that there are now over 100 workshops capable of catering for in excess of 1,000 prisoners each day. Returns at the end of November 2012 show that approximately 24% of the prison population were engaged in vocational training programmes. There was also a significant increase in the number of prisoners who participated in accredited vocational training course in 2011, when 1219 prisoners attended such courses.
