Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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185. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the extent to which investment in rehabilitative training within the prison system continues to be made available to first-time offenders; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26719/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that educational and rehabilitation facilities are available in all prisons throughout the country and all prisoners, including first time offenders, have access to those services.

Teachers and Work and Training Officers support and encourage those in custody on a daily basis in what can be a very challenging environment. Education and Work and Training programmes are adapted to take account of the diversity of those in custody and the complex nature of prison life, including segregation requirements and high levels of turnover of people. Education and Work and Training endeavours to meet the needs of those in custody by helping them cope with their sentence, achieve personal development and prepare for life after release.

Education in prisons is delivered in partnership between the Education Training Boards and the Irish Prison Service. The Department of Education provides an allocation of 220 whole time teacher equivalents to the Irish Prison Service through the Education and Training Boards. The Education Service seeks to deliver relevant programmes which cater for holistic needs, ensure broad access and high participation, and prioritise those with basic education needs. It promotes the principles of adult and community education, and supports a multi-disciplinary approach within the prison system. In the 3 years 2021 to 2023 over €3.8M has been spent by the Irish Prison Service on supporting the Prison Education Service.

The Irish Prison Service has in recent years changed the role of Integrated Sentence Management (ISM) Coordinator to a rostered position in all committal prisons to extend the reach of the service to evenings and weekends and increased the number of WTO-ISM Coordinator posts.

The ISM service is offered to all people serving greater than 1 year and some discrete cohorts serving less than one year, including candidates for the Community Support Scheme, people convicted of a sex offence, and women in custody. In July 2021, the Prison Service introduced a new central management ICT platform on the Prisoner Information Management System (PIMS) to capture and monitor the work of ISM Coordinators and members of the multi-disciplinary team. Since July 2021, prisoner multi-disciplinary sentence plans agreed by the prison-based team are now printed and shared with the person concerned to assist with ownership of their sentence management. This centralised information-sharing resource also assists prison-based services to improve the transition from custody to the community for offenders, with the overall aim of reducing risk to the individual and reducing risk of recidivism, while improving accountability and transparency.

Work on multi-disciplinary sentence plans is resource intensive but progress is being made in each prison to develop an individual multi-disciplinary sentence plan for all who are ISM-eligible on a gradual basis. Once the initial plan is agreed for the individual, the ICT system records the need for the plan to be reviewed a minimum of once-per-year but the plan can be reviewed and updated at any time under the direction of the Governor.

The work and training function provides work, work-training and other purposeful activities to all those in custody to include areas such as catering, laundry, industrial cleaning and industrial skills. People in custody may attend one or more education classes and /or work and training activity per week.

The Irish Prison Service has also expanded the number of accredited courses and opportunities available in the area of work-training. Enhanced partnership arrangements with accrediting bodies such as City and Guilds, the Guild of Cleaners and Launderers and Cleanpass have enabled the Irish Prison Service to extend the number of available courses and activities with certification.

The Prison Education Taskforce, co-chaired by Minister O'Donovan and Minister Browne, comprises key agencies such as the Irish Prison Service, Solas, the Probation Service, and the Education and Training Boards. The aim of the taskforce is to ensure greater alignment between prison education and work training and the tertiary education system to support prisoners in benefitting from education and training opportunities while in custody to support their rehabilitation and access to employment post-release. An example of this is the Retrofit Skills Course QQI Level 5 component award – which will be made available in Midlands and Wheatfield Prisons and will give the individual the skillset to gain well-paid meaningful employment in the area of retrofitting. The National Construction Centre, Mount Lucas has worked closely with the IPS over this past year to make this course available.

Other initiatives available to people in custody, depending on their location, include Men’s Shed, Horses of Hope, Gaisce, Red Cross and Listeners Scheme.

The Deputy will also wish to be aware that the Irish Prison Service Psychology Service pro-actively engage with 18-24 year olds who are committed to custody with a sentence of one year or more (without Post Release Supervision with the Probation Service). This initiative, known as the Building Identity Programme, is a specific, psychologically informed programme focussed on early engagement, assessment and the development of a psychological formulation. This initiative allows young people to learn more about themselves, why they came to prison and to support their sentence management through the development of a bespoke care plan linked to their psychological formulation. Working collaboratively with the young person, key rehabilitation services are identified and the young person is encouraged to engage with those services in order to support desistance on release from prison, for example, engagement with psychologists, addiction counsellors, psychiatry, employment services, education services, family support and support from officers.