Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 90: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the programmes of reformation and rehabilitation available in our prisons; and the funding available therefor. [37282/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Irish Prison Service is committed to helping prisoners to develop their sense of responsibility and to encourage those attitudes and skills which will assist them to return to society with the best chance of leading law abiding and self-supporting lives after release.

Prisoner rehabilitation involves significant multidimensional input by a diverse range of general and specialist services provided both by the Irish Prison Service and visiting statutory and non-statutory services. Among these are healthcare, psychiatric, psychological, educational, vocational, counselling, welfare and spiritual services. These services are important in addressing offending behaviour, drug and alcohol addiction, missed educational and vocational opportunities, anger management and self management in the interest of encouraging positive personal development in prisoners and preparing them for re-integration and resettlement on release from custody.

Rehabilitation programmes are delivered by a wide range of specialist services that operate in the prisons, such as psychologists, teachers, probation and welfare officers and prison officers.

Education

Education in prisons is provided in partnership with a range of educational agencies in the community including the VECs, Public Library Services, Colleges and the Arts Council. Broad programmes of education are made available which generally follow an adult education approach. Since the 1990s, most Prison Education Units have become involved in courses on pre-release, post-release, health education, addiction awareness, anger management, group skills and parenting etc. Very often such courses or activities are run on a multi-disciplinary basis. This service involved 210 whole-time-equivalent teachers who work in the prisons and whose salaries are paid from the Vote of the Department of Education and Science. In addition, in 2005 €1.37 million was expended on this service from the Prisons Vote of my Department.

Work Training

The Work Training programme operates at each prison. As well as organising necessary services such as catering and laundry, it also provides work and training opportunities for prisoners whilst ensuring a high quality of service delivery within the prison. Work Training provides structured pre-vocational and vocational training so that persons in custody can acquire the skills that may help them to obtain employment after their release. A total of €0.94 million was expended on Work and Training in 2005 with a further €0.55 million being expended on Manufacturing. These figures do not, however, include the salaries of the over 200 staff engaged in these activities in the prisons and who are paid from the Prisons Vote. This service is currently being expanded with dedicated new resources and staffing.

Probation Service

This Service has an active role during the course of the prisoner's sentence in helping maintain links with family and community agencies, encouraging prisoners to address their offending behaviour and engaging prisoners in individual counselling and group counselling programmes such as offending behaviour, addiction, violence and sex offending. The Service also provides supervision in certain cases under temporary release provisions.

Chaplaincy Service

Prison Chaplains promote the spiritual and pastoral welfare of prisoners and also participate with other services in the secular care of prisoners. The work of the Chaplaincy Service involves extensive contact with prisoners on personal and family matters as well as other issues which arise in relation to their confinement in prison.

Psychology Service

The principal aim of this service is to provide, in co-operation with others, a generic therapeutic service to prisoners aimed at addressing their psychological needs and at reducing re-offending.

Drug Treatment

Drug rehabilitation programmes for prisoners involve a significant multidimensional input by a diverse range of general and specialist services provided both by the Irish Prison Service and visiting statutory and non-statutory organisations. The programmes seek to reduce the demand for drugs within the prison system through education, treatment and rehabilitation services for drug-addicted prisoners. Particular initiatives include the provision of detoxification, methadone maintenance, education programmes, an information forum, addiction counselling, drug therapy programmes and the operation of drug-free areas.

The new Irish Prison Service Drugs Policy & Strategy — Keeping Drugs Out of Prisons — will see existing drug treatment programmes being expanded and enhanced with the further recruitment of psychologists and addiction counsellors as well as other staff. The Irish Prison Service expended almost €3 million (excluding staff costs) on the provision of medical services to the prisoner population in 2005 but it is not possible to disaggregate, with any degree of accuracy, from this total, the element that related solely to the treatment of prisoners with drug problems.

Sex Offender Programmes

Every effort is made to assist sex offenders in custody who are willing to participate at any level in their personal rehabilitation and relapse prevention. In this regard, there are three forms of direct therapeutic intervention currently available — i.e. individual counselling from the Irish Prison Service's Psychology Service and from the Probation Service; the Sex Offender Programme which has been in operation since 1994, and the Psychiatric Service which provides some support to prisoners in this category.