Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Prison Service and my Department are committed to enabling people in custody to benefit from education and training opportunities to support their rehabilitation and access to employment post-release.

As the Deputy will already be aware, the majority of people in custody, almost 70%, are early school leavers. The median school leaving age of those who are committed to custody is 14 years of age. It is an unfortunate fact of life that many people serving a sentence have not positively engaged with the education system in the past. That is why providing quality education in prisons, and encouraging and supporting people to avail of it, is so important.

Teachers and Work and Training Officers do this on a daily basis in a very challenging environment. Education and work and training endeavour to meet the needs of those in custody, help them cope with their sentence, achieve personal development and prepare for life after release. People in custody often start off their engagement with the education in the prison school by attending creative arts classes and then progressing to other subjects and programmes of education.

The arts is supported in the prisons directly through arts teachers supplied by the Education Training Boards into each of the Prisons. An Arts Coordinator works across all prisons to support these arts teachers.

Art Development in the Prison Education Service is concerned with the enhancement and support of art learning and teaching, to aid rehabilitation and self-development. This is made possible through a number of ways, including the Visual Artist in Prison Scheme and Writers in Prison Scheme – both of which are run in partnership with the Arts Council of Ireland. These schemes, which are jointly funded between the Arts Council and the Prison Service, allow artists to work with individuals in custody in one of the country’s prison/detention centres.

Exhibitions of creative arts completed by people in custody have taken place in Kilmainham Gaol Museum; Rua Red Arts Centre Tallaght; Spike Island, Cobh; The Hunt Museum Limerick City; CHQ Building, Custom House Quay, Dublin; as have smaller exhibitions in-house in the Irish Prison Service HQ in Longford and in my Department.

A recent event in the Dochas Centre, to mark St. Brigid’s Day, celebrated the creative works of the women there who, over a number of weeks, created stories, poetry and art that is unique to them and which reflects their journey and the relevance of what they have taken from the story of Brigid to that journey.

In addition, every two years, a national prison art exhibition takes place in special venues around the country and during the pandemic, a National Prison Art Competition took place. The creative arts exhibitions showcase the variety of arts and crafts created in the prisons and allow those in custody to be creative and express themselves in various art forms/mediums. It also allows members of the public to learn more about the life of the person in custody.

Listowel Prison Writing Competition is run as part of the Listowel Writers Festival and supported by the Irish Prison Service and Northern Ireland Prison Service. In 2023 the Prison Service provided ninety-one entries in total spread across 13 prisons in the Republic and 19 of the 24 prize winners were from the Republic of Ireland prisons.

Furthermore, the first issue of the ALL IN Magazine of creative writing and art by people in custody for people in custody north and south issued in Summer 2022, with the second issue produced in Summer 2023. It contains features on prison life, activities, programmes, education and sport, people, places, memories, nature, health, gardening, music, food, books etc. ALL IN Magazine builds on forty years of people in custody, north and south, entering their poetry and short stories in the Listowel Prison Writing Competition. It is a cross border, co-operative effort, to bring the work of artists and writers to an audience. It is also an invitation to those in custody to attend education, to learn from teachers, to find voice, make an artistic mark and prepare to enter Listowel and submit work to future competitions and magazine editions.

The Deputy may wish to be aware that a Prison Arts exhibition is due to run in Rua Red Gallery, Tallaght from 19 March 2024 – 29 April 2024 and an annual prison art exhibition runs each summer in Spike Island Cork.

Further, the Probation Service provides funding in excess of €20 million to a national network of 59 Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to develop and deliver services to offenders in their communities to support their rehabilitation, re-integration and engagement in a positive lifestyle. CBOs provide a range of services to people in local communities, including training and education, offender management programmes, residential accommodation, drug and alcohol treatment programmes. Many of the interventions and programmes provided by CBOs include activities such as art, music, or creative writing.

The Probation Service also recognises the important role of the Arts in highlighting and promoting discussion on social issues. The Probation Service and the Department of Justice supported the production of the play, Stronger, which was produced by Gúna Nua Theatre Company and appeared in the Dublin Theatre Festival 2021. The play centred around the theme of Restorative Justice with a specific lens on the harm to people and to relationships and on victim-centred approaches that can help to heal and to repair. The Service remains open to exploring similar opportunities to collaborate with the arts into the future.