Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 7 Feb 2001

Vol. 530 No. 1

Written Answers. - Prisoner Costs.

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The average cost of keeping an offender in custody during 1999 has been calculated by the Prisons Service as being £52,159. The service is currently calculating the figure for 2000 which should be available shortly.

The cost of keeping an offender, broken down by institution, is as follows:

Institution	Cost of Keeping an Offender in 1999
Arbour Hill	£47,445
Castlerea	£45,352
Cork	£42,729
Cloverhill	£33,308
Curragh	£41,498
Fort Mitchel	£50,313
Limerick	£46,485
Loughan House	£42,282
Midlands	Not operational 1999
Mountjoy	£53,280
Portlaoise	£138,477
Shanganagh Castle	£58,034
Shelton Abbey	£46,716
St Patrick's	£46,629
Training Unit	£43,279
Wheatfield	£46,556

As the Deputy has noted, there is a huge divergence in cost between certain institutions. I would point out, however, that most fall within a broad band of between £45,000 and £53,000 per offender. As up to 80% of this cost is made up of staff costs, including overtime, much of the variation is due to the costs of staffing prisons with different security regimes, escort requirements and economies of scale.

The major exception to this cost band is Portlaoise Prison which has historically contained some of the most dangerous offenders in the State, with the attendant high security regime and associated higher manning levels. However, it is planned to redeploy a large number of staff from Portlaoise to the new Midlands Prison which will have the effect of reducing the average cost of Portlaoise to nearer the average for the service.

The cost of keeping an offender is calculated by averaging out the current running costs of the prisons and places of detention against the average number of offenders over a certain period, in this case 1999. These running costs include certain items which are fixed no matter what the number of prisoners in custody, that is, officers' wages and items such as lighting and heating.

When looking at the cost of keeping an offender it should be borne in mind that this fig ure is for keeping a person in custody, with all of the entailed costs, such as medical, educational and recreational, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year. It is therefore not readily comparable with other types of institution. While it is of course the case that it is much less costly to apply a non-custodial sanction, involving supervision of the offender in a community setting, it has to be borne in mind that non-custodial sanctions are simply not a suitable or adequate way of dealing with the great majority of persons who end up in custody.