Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 67: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will make a statement detailing the rationale behind and the evidence underpinning the decision to expand prison capacity for females through the building of a super prison at Thornton Hall in view of the statistics from the Central Statistics Office and Irish Prison Service, which show that a huge portion of female prisoners are guilty of non-violent lesser offences and 55% of all committals are for a period of three months or less indicating the significant potential for more cost effective and greater use of alternatives to custody. [40222/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Since the opening of the Dóchas Centre in 1999, there has been a serious overcrowding problem there, even with the benefit of an additional 20 spaces provided in the final phase of its construction. I do not regard this as an acceptable situation. On 7 November 2008 there were 111 prisoners in custody in the Dóchas Centre. This figure exceeded the bed capacity by 31%. In addition there are over 50 female prisoners in the system who are currently on temporary release.

Social and demographic trends indicate that we will inevitably continue to experience an increasing level of women prisoners in our prison system in the future. It is the Government's intention, therefore, to include an expanded version of the Dóchas Centre in the plans to move the entire Mountjoy Prison Complex to a green-field site in the greater Dublin area. Provision will also have to be made for additional spaces for women prisoners in the Munster area where there is currently serious pressure on the twenty person unit at Limerick Prison.

I can also advise the Deputy that the statistics he makes mention of refer only to the throughput and committals of female prisoners to custody. The majority of these persons spend a very short time in custody. A snapshot of those actually serving sentences in custody on 7 November, 2008 paints a significantly different picture.

These figures indicate that 28% of the female prison sentenced population were serving a sentence for murder, manslaughter or conspiracy to murder. A further 36% were serving lengthy sentences for possession of drugs for the purpose of sale or supply. 13% were serving sentences of over two years in length for assault causing harm and all but three persons out of the remaining 23% are serving sentences of 20 months or over for offences such as robbery, robbery of a person, theft and criminal damage. The remaining three prisoners all have personal accommodation issues which need to be addressed before they can be considered for release. I believe that it is clear that the vast majority of these prisoners do not fall into the category of non-violent lesser offences and provide clear evidence that the current availability of prison spaces for female offenders do not meet requirements.