I wish to advise the Deputy that in 2012 the Irish Prison Service began using the State Claims Agency's National Incident Management System (“NIMS”) for the reporting of data relating to prisoner on staff assaults and prisoner on prisoner assaults.
Prison staff are required to record all incidents that occur within a prison on this system and it allows for the more accurate recording of incidences of assault.
The Deputy should be aware that the figures for 2021 are not yet available, however the statistics requested will be available and published on the Irish Prison Service website by the end of March 2022.
The data requested by the Deputy in relation to prisoner on prisoner assaults for the period 2012 to 2020 is provided in the table below.
A detailed breakdown of the nature of each assault is not readily available and would require the manual examination of each record of assault. This would require the examination of over 4,500 records which would take an inordinate amount of time and could not be justified in the current circumstances.
I can advise the Deputy that the majority of assaults relate to physical altercations between individuals and are usually broken up by prison officers quickly without injury to either party.
It should be noted that any act of violence against a person is unacceptable and all assaults carried out within our prisons are reported to An Garda Síochána for investigation and prosecution if deemed appropriate.
Prisoner on Prisoner assaults for the period 2012 to 2020
Prison/Place of Detention
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
2017
|
2018
|
2019
|
2020
|
Arbour Hill
|
4
|
7
|
6
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
Castlerea
|
73
|
103
|
119
|
117
|
139
|
79
|
76
|
85
|
44
|
Cloverhill
|
97
|
76
|
90
|
88
|
82
|
42
|
54
|
86
|
26
|
Cork
|
43
|
30
|
51
|
27
|
33
|
44
|
42
|
61
|
64
|
Dóchas Centre
|
25
|
21
|
16
|
47
|
30
|
33
|
28
|
39
|
0
|
Limerick
|
45
|
31
|
37
|
24
|
5
|
18
|
28
|
32
|
17
|
Loughan House
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
Midlands
|
68
|
88
|
77
|
47
|
50
|
45
|
44
|
23
|
29
|
Mountjoy (Male)
|
92
|
107
|
96
|
176
|
156
|
113
|
110
|
103
|
26
|
St.Patrick's Inst.
|
156
|
57
|
9
|
2
|
0
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Portlaoise
|
12
|
5
|
11
|
2
|
15
|
14
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
Shelton Abbey
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
Training Unit
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Wheatfield
|
98
|
77
|
74
|
47
|
55
|
24
|
20
|
10
|
28
|
Prison Service Escort Corps
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
7
|
3
|
12
|
9
|
1
|
Total
|
715
|
604
|
589
|
587
|
572
|
417
|
418
|
452
|
250
|