Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

At approximately €2,000 a week or €100,00 per year per prisoner, society is getting bad value for money from its prison system. There is a need now, more than ever before, for a fundamental rethink of our prisons policy given the revolving door nature of the system. Statistics clearly show a recidivism rate of 50%, with people often back in prison within four years. There is no strategic management of the prison populations or case management of individual prisoners. We now have a real problem of chronic overcrowding in the prison system which the Minister is not addressing. He has told the House before of his plans to make extra prison spaces available this summer. We are now at the end of May and the prison population is increasing by 1% per month. The contingency accommodation that the Minister spoke about is actually the governor's office in Mountjoy Prison and many reception areas in prisons doubling up as cells.

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