Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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727. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners on prisoner assaults in each prison in total in 2012; the number of prisoner on staff assaults in each prison in total in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27516/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy, on the number of prisoner on prisoner assaults and prisoner on staff assaults for 2012, is set out in the following table.

No level of inter prisoner violence or assaults on staff is acceptable. Every effort is made by prison staff and management to limit the scope of acts of violence. However, no regime can completely eliminate the possibility of violent incidents happening in a prison setting where a large number of dangerous and violent offenders are being held. As the Deputy can see from the figures there were 822 incidents of violence recorded in prisons during 2012 and this includes very minor incidents. This amounts to an average of 2.2 incidents per day among a population of approximately 4,300.

The Irish Prison Service has successfully introduced a number of measures across the prison estate such as, hand-held metal detectors, netting over prison yards, Boss chairs and security screening machines to detect and prevent weapons from entering the prison to limit the scope of acts of violence.

In addition, new prisoner programmes have been introduced such as the Incentivised Regimes policy which provides for a differentiation of privileges between prisoners according to their level of engagement with services and quality of behaviour. The objective is to provide tangible incentives to prisoners to participate in structured activities and to reinforce good behaviour, leading to a safer and more secure environment. As a result, I am pleased to advise the Deputy that the figure for 2012 represents a 35% decrease on the 2011 total of 1,256 (1,115 prisoner on prisoner and 141 prisoner on staff).