Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 5 Jun 1996

Vol. 466 No. 4

Written Answers. - Prisoner Statistics.

Ben Briscoe

Ceist:

213 Mr. Briscoe asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons detained at both the men's and women's prison at Mountjoy, Dublin 7 on 24 May 1996; the number of persons on remand; the number of persons serving a sentence; the county of origin in each case; the age profile under the headings of under 25 years of age, between 26 and 40 years of age, between 41 and 55 years of age and 56 years of age and over; and the duration of sentence imposed under the headings of under one year, between one and three years, between three and five years, between five and seven years and over seven years. [11397/96]

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Owen)

On 24 May 1996 there were 633 men in custody in Mountjoy Prison 102 of whom were on remand. On the same date there were 39 women in custody ten of whom were on remand. Many other prisoners in custody in Mountjoy are under sentence but are also remanded facing further charges. This is a very significant factor in sentence management, especially in the women's prison.

The further statistical data requested by the Deputy about Mountjoy prisoners could only be obtained through the manual examination in detail of the files of each of the 672 prisoners in question. This would not be an appropriate use of staff time in Mountjoy at this juncture.