Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The current prisoner population is 4,248. In 2011 the average cost of imprisonment was €65,359 per prisoner. Some 60% of those serving sentences of six months or less are poor and, in many cases, homeless. The majority of prisoners have never sat a State examination and more than half left school before the age of 15 years. Prisoners are 25 times more likely to come from and return to a seriously deprived area. Some 90.3% of committals in 2009 were for non-violent offences. In 2008, of the 520 prisoners who enrolled in the school at Mountjoy Prison, 20% could not read or write, while 30% could only sign their name. Over 70% of prisoners are unemployed on committal and a similar percentage self-report as not having a particular trade or occupation.

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