Written answers
Thursday, 23 May 2013
Department of Justice and Equality
Prisoner Welfare
Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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162. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of ISM officers currently employed within each prison; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24901/13]
Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Prison Service is implementing an Integrated Sentence Management (ISM) initiative within the prison system. ISM involves a new orientation in the delivery of services to prisoners and an emphasis on prisoners taking greater personal responsibility for their own development through active engagement with both specialist and non-specialist services in the prisons. The end result is a prisoner-centred, multidisciplinary approach to working with prisoners with provision for initial assessment, goal setting and periodic review to measure progress.
Over a thousand new prisoners participated in ISM in 2012. At the end of April this year there were over two thousand three hundred current and active cases and over a thousand prisoners had sentence plans in place at that time. Currently sixteen ISM Co-ordinators are in place in ten institutions as set out in the table underneath. It is envisaged that, through redeployment and a forthcoming internal competition, full time ISM Co-ordinators will be assigned to all prisons in the coming months. Having a dedicated team of ISM Co-ordinators in all prisons will enhance the effectiveness of the sentence management system and facilitate the growing numbers of prisoners participating in the process. A complement of over twenty ISM Co-ordinator posts have been identified to date, through the Transformation process, to provide vital coordination and support for the initiative at prison level.
Institution | No. |
---|---|
Arbour Hill | 1 |
Castlerea | 2 |
Cloverhill | 2 |
Dochas | 2 |
Loughan House | 1 |
Portlaoise | 1 |
Midlands | 2 |
Mountjoy | 2 |
Training Unit | 1 |
Wheatfield | 2 |
Total | 16 |
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