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Prison Service

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022

Wednesday, 19 January 2022

Questions (1232)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

1232. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the number of prisoners in the State who reported being assaulted while in prison in each of the past ten years; and if a breakdown can be provided on the nature of the assaults in tabular form. [1015/22]

View answer

Written answers

I wish to advise the Deputy that in 2012 the Irish Prison Service began using the State Claims Agency's National Incident Management System (“NIMS”) for the  reporting of data relating to prisoner on staff assaults and prisoner on prisoner assaults.

Prison staff are required to record all incidents that occur within a prison on this system and it allows for the more accurate recording of incidences of assault.

The Deputy should be aware that the figures for 2021 are not yet available, however the statistics requested will be available and published on the Irish Prison Service website by the end of March 2022.

The data requested by the Deputy in relation to prisoner on prisoner assaults for the period 2012 to 2020 is provided in the table below.

A detailed breakdown of the nature of each assault is not readily available and would require the manual examination of each record of assault. This would require the examination of over 4,500 records which would take an inordinate amount of time and could not be justified in the current circumstances.

I can advise the Deputy that the majority of assaults relate to physical altercations between individuals and are usually broken up by prison officers quickly without injury to either party.

It should be noted that any act of violence against a person is unacceptable and all assaults carried out within our prisons are reported to An Garda Síochána for investigation and prosecution if deemed appropriate.

Prisoner on Prisoner assaults for the period 2012 to 2020

Prison/Place of   Detention

   2012     

   2013     

   2014     

   2015     

   2016     

   2017     

   2018     

   2019     

  2020   

Arbour Hill

4

7

6

5

0

0

1

2

0

Castlerea

73

103

119

117

139

79

76

85

44

Cloverhill

97

76

90

88

82

42

54

86

26

Cork

43

30

51

27

33

44

42

61

64

Dóchas Centre

25

21

16

47

30

33

28

39

0

Limerick

45

31

37

24

5

18

28

32

17

Loughan House

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

1

1

Midlands

68

88

77

47

50

45

44

23

29

Mountjoy (Male)

92

107

96

176

156

113

110

103

26

St.Patrick's   Inst.

156

57

9

2

0

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Portlaoise

12

5

11

2

15

14

0

1

4

Shelton Abbey

1

0

0

0

0

0

3

0

0

Training Unit

0

0

1

0

0

2

N/A

N/A

N/A

Wheatfield

98

77

74

47

55

24

20

10

28

Prison Service   Escort Corps

0

2

2

4

7

3

12

9

1

Total

715

604

589

587

572

417

418

452

250

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