Ms Ethel Gavin:

I thank the committee for inviting me to this meeting. I am a retired Irish Prison Service governor. I retired two years ago, having served 30 years. My experience commenced as a basic grade prisoner officer in Mountjoy male prison in 1990. I served at various ranks over the following years and retired as governor grade 1 in charge of the largest prison in Ireland.

When I joined the Irish Prison Service in 1990, prison workshops were rarely closed due largely to the availability of overtime. An annualised hours system of working was introduced in 2005. The management of this system of working has unfortunately led to many workshop closures since its introduction at the cost of delivering an effective rehabilitative environment for prisoners. This has been further frustrated by the failure of the Prison Service escort corps to fully support prisons as it was originally designed to do. As a result, prisons find themselves having to provide staff to support this independent unit to escort prisoners to and from court etc. The result is further workshop closures.

In recent years a regime management plan was introduced. This plan is designed to ensure that only as a last resort are services to prisoners cut or closed. This, in my experience, has the potential to work very well. Unfortunately, a report by the Irish Prison Service that reviewed work and training in October 2021 stated that the reality in many prisons is as follows:

In practice, however, [in many institutions, Chief officers in charge of work and training] described the Work and Training function as secondary to the Discipline function and the Prison School. It was reported that while essential services (i.e. catering ... [etc.]) have been largely prioritised, the non-essential workshops were routinely closed and resources diverted elsewhere. This was ... reported to be the case both during and before the Covid-19 pandemic. Routine workshop closures were described as contributing to a lack of motivation among Work and Training staff, disengagement of prisoners and an impediment to accreditation.

The incentivised regimes programme in prisons provides for a differentiation of privileges between prisoners according to their level of engagement with services and quality of behaviour. The objective is to provide tangible incentives to prisoners to participate in structured activities and to encourage and reward good behaviour, leading to a safer and more secure environment. This has added to a more positive rehabilitative environment within prisons. Having said that, if a prisoner cannot engage with the services provided, it proves very difficult for him or her to move from the standard privilege level to an enhanced level. In one particular prison, there are 17 vacancies in the work training area today.

In 2020, costs associated with work and training, including staffing costs, gratuities and consumables, accounted for €23.8 million, or 5.8% of the Irish Prison Service, IPS, budget. This is a significant amount of public money that is clearly not delivering on what it is intended to achieve.