Ms Fíona Ní Chinnéide:

I am just going to add some figures. I thank the Deputy for the questions. The importance of ethnic equality monitoring comes through from the inputs here. For example, the Self-Harm Assessment and Data Analysis, SADA, studies into self-harm incidence in prisons do not track ethnic equality monitoring. What we know is women are more than eight times more likely to engage in self-harm and people on remand are two and a half times more likely than people serving a sentence but we cannot match that up with what Ms Joyce and Ms Costello have so eloquently described to the committee. Another example to echo what Ms Costello said about the prison recidivism rates is that we do not have that breakdown. It would be so important . However, we do know people sentenced to prison for between three and six months prior to their release had the highest probability of reoffending within one year of release and, therefore, the highest rates of early reoffending are among those imprisoned for short sentences which, by definition, are for less serious offences. This again just adds evidence to support what Ms Costello and Ms Joyce are saying.

On women in the Dóchas Centre, we were struck that in the 2019 Office of the Inspector of Prisons report, at the time of her visit she said 24% of women in the centre were Travellers, which is very high. We also know that before the pandemic between 25% and 30% of women under sentence in prison were again serving short sentences of less than 12 months. This is in contrast to men where it is in the region of 15%. The numbers in prison have been reduced quite substantially in response to the pandemic. We welcome that. We hope it is not a short-term solution. We hope it will be maintained in the future. In September, 12% of all prisoners under sentence were serving sentences of less than 12 months. We welcome that but it should go further.

The other issue we have not addressed here is the high number of women detained on remand, including Traveller women. The IPS has done detailed analysis of this and perhaps it will be able to share it with the committee. The Department of Justice has committed to examining this persistent use of prison. In the region of three quarters of committals to prison under sentences every year are for sentences of less than 12 months, which means the legislation designed to increase the use of community-based sanctions as an alternative is not seeming effective but we do not know why. It could relate to housing, mental health, addictions. There is a range. The Department is engaging in this review and we welcome that. It is also examining the gender element to that as well, which is positive.

To pick up on the prison complaints point, in 2016, the then Inspector of Prisons, Judge Micheal Reilly, launched a report, the recommendations of which were accepted by then Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Francis Fitzgerald MEP. It said there was a need for overarching review of the prison complaints system and that the ombudsman should be introduced as an external appeals mechanism. We know some work has been undertaken in the Prison Service in terms of training and putting different systems in place. However, the new, revised complaints system has not yet been published. There were commitments made about the end of 2019 and the end of 2020. Our understanding now is the hold-up is because it requires an amendment to the prison rules and that the backlog of legislation, perhaps pandemic-related, is the reason for the delay. At any time, but particularly during a pandemic when there are fewer feet walking the prison landings, we think that should be an absolute priority.