I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I have visited the women's prison in Mountjoy on and off over the past 15 years and I and many others greeted the news of the building of a new women's prison with great relief. The current prison is dark and noisy. It has poor educational and training facilities and little in the way of room for exercise. The previous prison in the basement was even more disastrous. Anyone who saw the recreation area, an old laundry with prisoners leaning aimlessly against radiators, would have thought they had re-entered Dickensian times. Changed conditions for staff and prisoners were essential.
The news in the summer that the building of the proposed new women's prison was delayed probably dismayed the Minister as much as all those concerned with the reform of the Prison Service in Ireland. I raise this matter on the Adjournment to try to ascertain the Minister's plans with regard to dealing with girls and women sentenced to detention by the courts until the new prison is built.
In general, there are 30 to 35 women in Mountjoy and a handful in Limerick. The vast majority usually are under 25 and many are teenagers. Most are in prison for drug related crimes. Shoplifting has always been the most common offence for which women have been prosecuted and imprisoned. The figures continue to be constant and increasingly often, this type of crime is for the purpose of feeding a drug addiction.
Approximately 180 to 200 women are committed to prison each year but it appears very often that the same women are admitted several times. There are very few serious female criminals in prison in Ireland I am glad to point out and one could query the need for a women's prison of the size planned. As I said earlier, many of the prisoners are teenagers. The Prison Service should have no dealings with those under 18 years of age. Minors need rehabilitation, training and education in a totally different atmosphere and away from adult prisoners.
A juvenile justice Bill has been promised for decades by successive Governments. If the Minister brings it in, it will be the first such Bill in the history of the State because, as the Minister knows, we are still working under the 1908 legislation. Juveniles sentenced to detention should go to a special school but the managers of special schools under this legislation can refuse to take a child. Usually they do this because the school is full but they can also refuse if they feel a girl could be too disruptive. The prisons, however, are not in a position to refuse anyone sent to them, which means that girls of 15, 16 and 17 years of age are sent to Mountjoy. There is also the problem that special schools only take girls who get a two year minimum sentence. At what stage is this juvenile justice Bill and how many of those who enter Mountjoy would not be there if there was such a Bill and sufficient places in special schools were made available to receive them?
It has been said that about 40 per cent of male prisoners have a problem with drug addiction. However, I gather the problem with females is over 90 per cent. If this problem was properly addressed, how many of those drug addicts would need to go to prison? The new prison was to have a drug free unit. I am glad to read of the Minister's plans for such an area in the male prison and for the setting up of a methadone programme, but what is to happen to the women until the new prison is built? Is the status quo in the women's prison to be maintained?
There is currently no open prison or hostel for women prisoners, so they are already more disadvantaged than their male counterparts. Women with babies and young children are not cared for at all. These issues were to be addressed in the new prison but all this has now been greatly delayed.
There were to be knock on benefits for other prisoners and prison staff with the building of the new women's prison. There is an urgent need for more room for occupational and training facilities as well as accommodation in Mountjoy and St. Patrick's Institution; better library facilities, a reading room and gymnasium were planned. Is all this upgrading for the men's prison and St. Patrick's Institution to be greatly delayed as well? Lack of occupational facilities and training means that prison is little more than an incarceration of the person, which is of no benefit to them or society.
While I have not seen the plans for the new women's prison, is it possible that if they were looked at more carefully, a smaller unit could be built? Could such a unit be built for those women prisoners who should be in a special school because of their age, in a drug programme outside prison because of their drug addiction or in a community care programme and could the Minister get funding for this? This might not only enable us to deal more carefully and better with women prisoners but also mean that those facilities which are urgently needed for male prisoners could be advanced more rapidly.