Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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150. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of persons currently serving prison sentences; the extent to which they receive rehabilitative training or have access to programmes of a nature likely to encourage them away from crime; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2100/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that on the 14 January 2015 there were 3,661 prisoners in custody. Of this 3,169 were serving prison sentences.

The Irish Prison Service provides to those in custody a wide range of rehabilitative programmes that include education, vocational training, health care, psychiatric, psychological, counselling, welfare and spiritual services. which have the dual purpose of providing prisoners with purposeful activity while serving their sentences and encouraging them to lead non-offending lives on release. These programmes are available in all prisons and all prisoners are eligible to use the services.

The development of prisoner programmes forms a central part of the Irish Prison Service Three Year Strategic Plan 2012 - 2015. There is a clear commitment in the Strategy to enhance sentence planning through Integrated Sentence Management and the delivery of prison based rehabilitative programmes.

Other areas where there has been significant progress in prison education are in physical education, in the provision of higher education, in the arts and in preparing prisoners for release and supporting their transition to life, and often to education, on the outside. A top priority for the Irish Prison Service is ensuring help for those with reading and writing problems and peer mentoring programmes are currently active in all of our prisons.

As well as seeking to draw on best practice in adult and further education in the community, there has been a lot of curriculum development over the years that is specific to prison circumstances, such as courses on addiction, health issues and offending behaviour.

The guiding principles which underpin the prisons' work and training service are to make available, work, work-training and other purposeful activities to all those in custody aiming to give useful skills and serve the purpose of promoting rehabilitation. Training activities are designed to give as much variety as possible and also to give opportunities for those in prison to acquire practical skills which will help them secure employment on release. The areas include catering, laundry, industrial cleaning, woodwork, construction, industrial skills and gym.

The Irish Prison Service has also been expanding the number of accredited courses and opportunities available to prisoners in Work Training in recent years. Enhanced partnership arrangements with accrediting bodies such as City and Guilds, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), and the Guild of Launders and Cleaners and the centralising of coordination and quality assurance arrangements have enabled us to extend the number of available courses and activities with certification.

On committal, all prisoners are interviewed by the Governor and are informed of the services available in the prison. At this point prisoners may be referred to services or they can self refer at a later date. Where Governors consider, on the information available, that a prisoner needs a particular intervention they will initiate a referral.

I can inform the Deputy that figures that the latest available figures (22/11/14 - 28/11/14) show that an overall total of 1,816 offenders participated in Education activities which represents almost 48% of the prisoner population at that time.

Similarly an average of 1,051 prisoners engaged in vocational training activities each day in November and this represents 28% of the average prison population in that month. It should be noted that a prisoner may participate in more than one activity.