Prison Service

Tuesday, 10 October 2023

Questions (368)

Patrick Costello

Question:

368. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice the number of prisoners, per year, by institution, from 2010 to date; and the number of probation officers by institution for the corresponding period, in tabular form. [43924/23]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Justice

The Probation Service is an executive agency of the Department of Justice with the primary purpose of assessment and management of offenders in the community and is committed to working to reduce offending, create safer communities and fewer victims through rehabilitation. The Service has a presence in every prison nationwide, working as part of multi-disciplinary teams supporting reintegration. Probation staff conduct assessments and undertake offence-focused, pre-release and reintegration work with people who will be subject to court-mandated supervision orders upon their release from custody.

In addition to the Probation Officers listed in the table below, there is also one Assistant Principal Probation Officer, seven Senior Probation Officers and five administrative staff allocated to the prisons – thirteen staff in total as of 1 October 2023.

As of 1 October 2023, there are four Probation Officer vacancies across the prison region: one in Mountjoy Male, two in Wheatfield/Cloverhill and one in the Midlands.

Table 1 provides the number of committals by institution for the period in question, it should be noted an individual can be committed on more than one occasion.

Table 2 provides the daily average prison population by institution for the period in question.

Table 3 provides the number of Probation Officers (Full Time Equivalents) Prison & Risk Resettlement at end of Each Year 2010 to 30th September 2023.

Table 1 - Committals by institution for the period 2010 to 2023

	Year 2023	Year 2022	Year 2021	Year 2020	Year 2019	Year 2018	Year 2017
Castlerea	507	670	594	626	786	788	930
Cloverhill	2,275	2,645	2,298	2,541	3,267	3,144	2,808
Cork	725	829	808	873	1,053	952	1,179
Limerick (Female)	139	185	159	191	242	256	360
Limerick (Male)	515	596	549	679	827	750	906
Midlands	352	432	367	454	740	543	721
Mountjoy (Female)	591	622	417	458	932	749	984
Mountjoy (Male)	864	1,045	909	494	1,067	865	1,328
Portlaoise	5	12	17	14	16	16	26
St. Patricks	-	-	-	-	-	-	36
Wheatfield	3	7	15	10	9	8	9
Total	5,976	7,043	6,133	6,340	8,939	8,071	9,287

Year 2023 (up to and including 30 September)

	Year 2016	Year 2015	Year 2014	Year 2013	Year 2012	Year 2011	Year 2010
Castlerea	1,471	1,547	1,705	1,462	1,514	1,580	1,600
Cloverhill	2,604	2,640	2,629	2,652	3,123	3,556	3,967
Cork	2,148	2,788	2,654	2,787	2,798	2,600	2,445
Limerick (Female)	1,175	1,486	1,315	1,152	959	730	629
Limerick (Male)	1,770	1,911	1,732	1,703	1,681	1,797	1,710
Midlands	1,756	1,815	1,398	1,017	1,101	1,046	777
Mountjoy (Female)	1,762	1,925	1,776	1,575	1,601	1,508	1,392
Mountjoy (Male)	2,218	2,724	2,284	1,583	2,158	2,394	2,948
Portlaoise	29	31	24	37	27	22	37
St. Patricks	134	238	317	442	633	849	815
Wheatfield	32	101	321	1,325	1,431	1,236	859
Total	15,099	17,206	16,155	15,735	17,026	17,318	17,179

Table 2 - Daily Average number of prisoners by institution for the period 2010 to 2023

	Year 2023	Year 2022	Year 2021	Year 2020	Year 2019	Year 2018	Year 2017
Arbour Hill	136	131	125	130	135	136	133
Castlerea	365	320	286	297	306	300	292
Cloverhill	476	424	369	362	400	402	356
Cork	299	262	255	271	291	288	272
Limerick (Female)	50	34	28	28	36	33	28
Limerick (Male)	314	208	195	206	215	214	211
Loughan House	119	106	95	105	106	110	109
Midlands	921	861	802	814	840	823	818
Mountjoy (Female)	159	139	116	120	134	132	116
Mountjoy (Male)	755	718	691	667	684	679	563
Portlaoise	231	217	211	225	232	227	221
Shelton Abbey	100	94	96	93	102	97	98
*St. Patricks	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
**Training Unit	96	53	-	-	-	-	25
Wheatfield	573	555	523	505	490	452	438
Total	4,594	4,122	3,792	3,823	3,971	3,893	3,680

	Year 2016	Year 2015	Year 2014	Year 2013	Year 2012	Year 2011	Year 2010
Arbour Hill	134	138	141	141	146	151	153
Castlerea	293	308	338	354	361	364	378
Cloverhill	382	359	413	402	429	433	465
Cork	253	218	226	231	259	295	303
Limerick (Female)	31	24	27	29	28	31	26
Limerick (Male)	221	224	223	225	261	301	307
Loughan House	116	116	119	124	104	122	134
Midlands	814	805	823	762	616	586	542
Mountjoy (Female)	109	107	123	127	124	129	131
Mountjoy (Male)	515	537	556	537	603	616	667
Portlaoise	198	218	246	262	278	270	263
Shelton Abbey	101	101	102	104	102	102	99
*St. Patricks	1	3	11	129	204	204	214
**Training Unit	90	92	89	105	116	115	113
Wheatfield	460	472	478	626	687	671	495
Total	3,718	3,722	3,915	4,158	4,318	4,390	4,290

*St Patricks Institution closed down on 07th April 2017

**The Training Unit temporally closed down on 12th May 2017 and re-opened on 18th July 2022.

Table 3 - Number of Probation Officers (Full Time Equivalents) Prison & Risk Resettlement at end of Each Year 2010 to 30th September 2023

Year	Mountjoy Male & Training Unit	Mountjoy Female	Wheatfield Cloverhill	Arbour Hill & Shelton Abbey	Castlerea Loughan HarristownKazelain	Cork Limerick	Midlands & Portlaoise	Total
2010	6	4.5	6	3	2.8	4	4	30.3
2011	5	4	4	3	2	2	5	25
Year	Mountjoy Male	Mountjoy Female (Dochas) & Shelton Abbey	Wheatfield Cloverhill	Arbour Hill & Sex Offender Programme*	Castlerea Loughan	Cork Limerick	Midlands & Portlaoise	Total
2012	6	6.8	5.1	4.5	2	2.5	4.8	31.7
2013	6	4.8	5	5.5	2.6	2	4.8	30.7
2014	7	4.8	7	3.5	2.6	2	5.2	32.1
2015	7	4.8	7.4	3.5	3.6	2	7.2	35.3
2016	5	4.8	4.6	3.5	2.6	2	5.2	27.7
2017	5.8	5.8	7.8	4.5	2	2	6.2	34.1
2018	3.8	4	3.8	1.5	2	2	5.2	22.3
	Mountjoy Male	Mountjoy Female (Dochas) & Shelton Abbey	Wheatfield Cloverhill	Arbour Hill	Castlerea Loughan	Cork Limerick	Midlands & Portlaoise	Total
2019	3.8	4	2.8	2.5	1	3	6.2	23.3
2020	4.8	4	2.8	2.5	2	3	6.2	25.3
2021	3.8	4	3.8	1.5	3	3	5.2	24.3
2022	3.6	4	3	2	3	3.5	5.2	24.3
2023 (End Sept)	3.6	4	3	3	3	4	6.2	26.8

*The Sex Offender Treatment Programme moved to the Midlands prison and continued to be led by prison psychology staff with input from Midlands Probation team from 2018 onwards.