My Department is responsible for the detention of male offenders aged 16 years and over, and female offenders aged 17 years and over. Offenders under that age cannot be sent to prisons or places of detention operated by my Department, except occasionally in the special circumstances provided for in sections 97 and 102 of the Children Act, 1908. Offenders under 16, males, and 17, females, may be sent to special schools which are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Education.
In the case of prisons and places of detention operated by my Department, the number of persons under the age of 18 in detention and on remand as of April 1995 was as follows: