Patrick Costello
Question:589. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice the timeline for achieving single-cell occupancy for all prisoners in the Irish prison system. [7777/22]
View answerTuesday, 15 February 2022
Questions (589)
Written answers
As the Deputy is aware the prison estate comprises a mix of institutions ranging from closed prisons, open prisons, semi-open prisons and remand facilities. This mix of accommodation enables the Service to provide a varied prison regime where progression through the system assists prisoners to prepare for release from custody on completion of a custodial sentence.
The provision of single cell accommodation for all prisoners, while desirable, is not currently possible due to the existing capacity within the prison estate, and current levels of committals. The Deputy many be aware that there are approximately 3,300 usable cells in the estate with about 3,800 people in custody at any one time.
It is also the case that the number of people in custody is subject to increasing and decreasing trends and prior to the onset of the pandemic there were over 4,200 prisoners in custody.
Data from the last published cell occupancy census carried out by the Prison Service indicates that 56% of prisoners in custody are accommodated in single cell accommodation.
The Deputy may also wish to note that some prisoners are accommodated in multi-occupancy cells for reasons other than capacity and some prisoners, at committal stage, indicate a preference to share a cell with another person who may be known to them.
All prisoners are assessed by prison management on committal with regard to their suitability for sharing a cell.
The need to ensure the availability of modern prison facilities with adequate capacity will be central to the development of the new Irish Prison Service Capital Strategy 2023, against the background of the work underway as part of the Programme for Government to develop policies and proposals to review policy options for prison and penal reform, including the effective and appropriate use of non-custodial sanctions.