Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 29 March 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Rehabilitative Opportunities within the Prison System: Discussion

Mr. Fergal Black:

We have excellent nurses, doctors and psychologists. We have input from the National Forensic Mental Health Service. The services that women get, albeit within a custodial setting, are excellent. However, what we are doing in Limerick in the development of the new prison, and we have taken a great deal of international advice on this, is developing a facility which is tailored to the needs of women. There are no bars on the windows. It is a completely different structure and viewpoint because women are different. Women who come into custody have a complex range of needs, and they are compounded. Generally, their children could have gone into care. They have been subject to sexual violence, domestic violence-----