Ms Caron McCaffrey:

Deaths in custody are traumatic occurrences in prisons. The Deputy is correct in that there was an increase in the number of people who died in custody but many of theme died because they had underlying health conditions, such as cancer and a range of other conditions. We have an increasingly ageing prisoner population, and we have opened a bespoke unit to deal with our increasing elderly population. People die of natural causes in our prisons. As the population ages, we have people in their 70s, 80s and 90s in custody with complex medical conditions and, therefore, it is the case that some will die of natural causes. That is hugely impactful within that prison, and on fellow prisoners and our staff. We have critical incident stress management models to put in place when somebody dies in custody. When somebody dies by suicide, as I mentioned earlier, we have local suicidal harm prevention groups in all our prisons. When somebody dies there is a case review to see exactly what happened and what lessons can be learned. At a national level, I chair a group that examines every death in custody to consider recommendations. Deaths in custody are also subject to investigation by the coroner, An Garda Síochána and importantly by the Inspector of Prisons. We take account of all the recommendations made by the Inspector of Prisons in its reports and ensure they are implemented across the organisation.

With regard to people who are inappropriately placed in custody, everybody in our custody is appropriately placed because they have a warrant and have been committed to custody. However, that is not to say that for many people the offending behaviour is not related to an underlying mental illness or addiction. We gave some of the statistics earlier. Some 70% of people who come to custody have an active addiction and, in many cases, that addiction is due to trauma they have endured during childhood, and it is how they deal with and self-medicate for that trauma. That addiction leads to shoplifting and drug dealing and they end up in a custodial setting. Similarly, particularly within the remand population there might be people who end up in a custodial setting because of how they are presenting due to a severe enduring mental illness. I mentioned that there has been a mental health task force, which has made important recommendations on diversion, which, when implemented, will hopefully change the landscape and create a pathway for people who come in contact initially with the criminal justice system, where the main presenting issue is one of mental illness as opposed to criminality. That is very positive. I also mentioned earlier that our recruit prison officers get mindful days training - six on mental health and three on neurodiversity. All the staff in our Prison Service have received a bespoke mental health training programme that has been developed by our health care team, our psychology team and our training college. However, that is not to say we cannot do more. This week is mental health week in our prisons and we are focusing on the people in our care, but also on our staff. From a staff perspective, the prison environment can be impactful and we have a lot of supports in place around mental health and staff support. We also recognise the environment can be impactful on those caring for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.