Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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234. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the extent to which all first time prisoners have access to rehabilitative education or training and are segregated from hardened habitual offenders with a view to interrupting their involvement in crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33481/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that it provides a wide range of rehabilitative programmes to those in custody that include education, vocational training, healthcare, psychiatric, psychological, counselling, welfare and spiritual services. These programmes can offer purposeful activity to those in custody while serving their sentences and encouraging them to lead law abiding lives on release. These programmes are available in all prisons and all prisoners are eligible to use the services.

Each prisoner, on Committal, is initially placed in a dedicated Committal Unit. They will be assessed during the committal and induction period to determine any risks and will be interviewed by the Governor and 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.

The Irish Prison Service began recruiting Assistant Psychologists to the Psychology Service in 2016. Assistant Psychologists focus primarily on mental health and sentence management work with prisoners. Specifically, Assistant Psychologists are tasked with completing Strength, Risk and Needs Assessments of young persons, 18-24 years, who are committed to custody on a sentence of one year or more and who do not have a post release supervision order, to better inform their sentence progression and appropriate interventions. The intention of this focussed approach is to assist young persons committed to custody in living law-abiding and purposeful lives on their release to the community. The Probation Service have recently joined this initiative by engaging in assessments with those 18-24 year olds who do have post release supervision orders.

The development of prisoner programmes forms a central part of the Irish Prison Service Three Year Strategic Plan 2016 - 2018. There is a clear commitment in the Strategy to enhance sentence planning through Integrated Sentence Management and the delivery of prison based rehabilitative programmes.

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 Department of Education and Skills provides an allocation of 220 whole time teacher equivalents to the Prison Service through the Education and Training Boards . Education in prisons is delivered in partnership between the Education and Training Boards and the Irish Prison Service with a focus on providing education which is quality assured, student centred and which facilitates lifelong learning. The partnership endeavours to meet the needs of students through helping them cope with their sentence, achieve personal development and prepare for life after release. A broad and flexible curriculum is provided which ranges from basic literacy classes and peer led tutoring to Open University. There is an increasing focus on Quality and Qualification Ireland "QQI" accreditation as the modular structure best meets the needs of students in prison. On some occasions, prisoners may have to wait for a place to become available on an educational programme.

Other areas where there has been significant progress in prison education are in physical education, in the provision for 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.

Prison Management are keen to ensure that all prisoners have access to education and training, including those who are segregated. Education classes are provided to those who are segregated, as appropriate, and they are provided with reading materials, education and art resources.

The Director General of the Irish Prison Service has appointed a high-level Group to introduce a standard Risk Assessment Tool for use throughout the prison estate. This Risk Assessment Tool will include provisions for the assessment of people in custody for suitability for cell-sharing, for moves within individual prisons and other operational decisions. The Assessment Tool is currently being developed with professional advice and assistance from the State Claims Agency, and is very much at an advanced stage and is subject to the usual operational and security considerations.