Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 March 2022
133. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice if she will order the full rolling out of the Traveller in Prison Initiative by a charitable trust (details supplied) across all penal institutions in the State. [16227/22]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that the Travellers in Prison Initiative (“TPI”) was first developed in 2014 as a response to the particular needs and circumstances of people from the Travelling community that were committed to prisons in Ireland. It is the first operational programme of the St Stephen's Green Trust, and is also funded by the Prison Service and the Probation Service.
I am advised by the Prison Service that a significant amount of positive steps have been taken since the beginning of this collaborative project, including:
- The development of peer support services in 4 prisons and mediation in 8 prisons, which it is intended to develop further now that COVID restrictions are reducing;
- The identification of Traveller Liaison Teachers to support greater access to education services and adaptation of education services for Travellers;
- The hosting of Traveller pride events to better share awareness about the rich cultural heritage of Travellers;
- The introduction of awareness training for new prison staff on the issues arising for Travellers and areas of discrimination;
- The development of the electronic means to capture ethnicity information in a systematic way, and
- The training of Traveller volunteers for the Red Cross programme in prisons.
The ‘Working It Out’ report by the Travellers in Prison Initiative regarding unemployment amongst Travellers highlighted the work required in the area of training and employment and the Prison Service intends to take steps to address a number of issues identified in that report.
The recent evaluation of the Travellers in Prison Initiative 2015-2021 will serve to highlight specific goals for the Prison Service to target in a strategic way in the next phase of this work. Both the Prison and Probation Service are committed to working together to advance the necessary changes identified.
The mediation programme, which is in operation in Castlerea Prison since 2016, is a partnership between the Midlands Traveller Conflict Mediation Initiative, the Red Cross, Travellers in Prison Initiative, and Castlerea Prison School, is a hugely successful programme aimed at conflict awareness.
A number of prisoners are trained as mediators and the programme is facilitated by members of the Traveller community. It aims to develop intervention skills to address some of the issues that can lead to person on person violence in prisons. The mediation programme has been expanded into a number of locations including Midlands Prison, Loughan House, the Dóchas Centre and Cork Prison and while the roll out has been impacted by Covid there are a number of prison educations centres who have expressed a willingness to introduce a similar programme in the future.
In late 2020, the Prison Service in collaboration with the equine industry, opened the Equine Centre at Castlerea Prison. While the equine programme while open to all prisoners, early indications show a high level of interest from Traveller men. Prisoners from Castlerea Prison attend the Centre daily and are engaged in the Horse Care and Welfare programme. The course is specially designed for delivery to students with literacy issues and is delivered visually with voice over and assisted through the use of diagrams. It is an accredited programme endorsed by the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (RACE).
In addition, the Probation Service continues to actively partner with TPI on a variety of training and development initiatives aimed at supporting staff to work more effectively and sensitively with members of the Traveller Community.
A summary of achievements and plans to date, include:
- The development and delivery of ethnic identifier training to all Probation Officers which focuses on supporting staff to consistently and sensitively gather accurate ethnicity data. The aim of this training is to enable the routine collection and publishing of ethnic data to inform good policy.
- The joint delivery of cultural awareness training to all Probation Officers on “working with members of the Travelling Community – a culturally sensitive approach”. This training commenced in 2021 and involves participation from travellers with lived experience of the criminal justice system.
- The Service is currently working with TPI to deliver a customised training programme on Working with Traveller Women and Working with the Roma Community. It is anticipated that training will commence later in 2022.
- The Service has also engaged with TPI in relation to the importance of preparing Pre-Sentence Assessment Reports that reflect the particular challenges faced by the traveller community, which result from cross generational issues of discrimination and hostility. The Service is currently progressing work in this area and is actively researching how this has been done in other jurisdictions, for example in Canada with their Aboriginal population (Gladue Reports). This research will inform future work in this area.
The Service’s work with the Traveller Community and ongoing partnership with TPI is central to its commitments to the promotion of inclusion prioritised as a core pillar within its Strategy Statement 2021-23: Probation Works for Community Service.
