Prison Service

Tuesday, 1 February 2022

Questions (607)

Patrick Costello

Question:

607. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice the total prison population by year for each of the years 2010 to 2021 and to date in 2022; the number of prisoners incarcerated for petty crime for the same time period; and the percentage of the prison population broken down by male and female inmates. [4733/22]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Justice

The information requested by the Deputy is provided in the tables below.

Table 1 provides the number of committals to the Irish Prison Service for the period 2010 – 2022 broken down by male and female.

Table 2 provides the daily average population for the period 2010 to 2021 broken down by male and female.

The Prison Service does not record information on persons incarcerated for petty crimes, as this is not a specific category of offence. However, the Service records statistics relating to offence groups as well as by sentence length.

These statistics are available on the Irish Prison Service website and can be located in the Information Centre - Statistics and Information – Yearly Statistics – Sentenced committals each year from year 2007 to year 2020.

Table 1 Committals to Prison for the period 2010 to 2022 broken down by male and female

Year	Total	Change from previous year - %	Persons	Change from previous year - %	Male	Female	% Male	% Female

2022*	458		453		409	44
2021**	6,136	-3.2	5,182	-1.5	4,695	487	90.6	9.4
2020	6,340	-29.0	5,263	-26.6	4,707	556	89.4	10.6
2019	8,939	10.8	7,170	10.5	6,276	894	87.5	12.5
2018	8,071	-13.1	6,490	-13.3	5,724	766	88.2	11.8
2017	9,287	-38.5	7,484	-40.5	6,403	1,081	85.6	14.4
2016	15,099	-12.2	12,579	-11.3	10,033	2,546	79.8	20.2
2015	17,206	6.5	14,182	5.8	11,264	2,918	79.4	20.6
2014	16,155	2.7	13,408	2.7	10,723	2,685	80.0	20.0
2013	15,735	-7.6	13,055	-5.8	10,729	2,326	82.2	17.8
2012	17,026	-1.7	13,860	-0.7	11,709	2,151	84.5	15.5
2011	17,318	0.8	13,952	1.4	12,050	1,902	86.4	13.6
2010	17,179	11.4	13,758	11.5	12,057	1,701	87.6	12.4

*Year 2022 – these figures are for the period 1 Jan to 26 Jan 2022

**Year 2021 – Figures may be subject to slight change pending the Publication of the Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2021

Table 2 Daily Average number of prisoners per institution for the period 2010 to 2021

Institution	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Arbour Hill	153	151	146	141	141	138	134	133	136	135	130	125
Castlerea	378	364	361	354	338	308	293	292	300	306	297	286
Cloverhill	465	433	429	402	413	359	382	356	402	400	362	369
Cork	303	295	259	231	226	218	253	272	288	291	271	255
Limerick (female)	26	31	28	29	27	24	31	28	33	36	28	28
Limerick (male)	307	301	261	225	223	224	221	211	214	215	206	195
Loughan House	134	122	104	124	119	116	116	109	110	106	105	95
Midlands	542	586	616	762	823	805	814	818	823	840	814	802
Mountjoy (female)	131	129	124	127	123	107	109	116	132	134	120	116
Mountjoy (male)	667	616	603	537	556	537	515	563	679	684	667	691
Portlaoise	263	270	278	262	246	218	198	221	227	232	225	211
Shelton Abbey	99	102	102	104	102	101	101	98	97	102	93	96
**St. Patricks	214	204	204	129	11	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
Training Unit	113	115	116	105	89	92	90	25	0	0	0	0
Wheatfield	495	671	687	626	478	472	460	438	452	490	505	523
Total	4,290	4,390	4,318	4,158	3,915	3,722	3,718	3,680	3,893	3,971	3,823	3,792

*Year 2021 – Figures may be subject to slight change pending the Publication of the Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2021.

**St Patrick’s Institution closed on 07 April 2017

***The Training Unit closed on 22 May 2017