Thurles Information

Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee visits new expansion of Limerick Prison, while announcing publication of the Irish Prison Service Annual Report for 2021.

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD has today visited Limerick Prison, to review its major expansion project, which is nearing completion, and has also published the 2021 Annual Report of the Irish Prison Service.

This expansion to Limerick prison will provide a new accommodation block for male prisoners and a new standalone female prison.

The opening of new male accommodation in Limerick in late 2022, will result in an additional 90 prisoner cell spaces being made available and the completion of the new standalone female prison will provide accommodation for a minimum of 22 additional prisoners.

The Minister was accompanied by the Director General of the Irish Prison Service and took the opportunity to speak with management and staff of Limerick Prison.

Speaking during her visit, the Minister praised the Irish Prison Service for its work: “These works are clear evidence of the Government’s continued investment in the capital development of the prison estate to ensure we have adequate capacity in our prisons.
I am hugely impressed by the new facility here in Limerick Prison which demonstrates the Irish Prison Service’s commitment to the provision of safe and secure custody in facilities that are designed to support prisoner rehabilitation.”

The Irish Prison Service committed in its strategic plan to the elimination of the practice referred colloquially as ‘slopping out’, through the provision of in cell sanitation in the older parts of the prison estate, where that practice remains.

Completion of these works is another step to achieving this essential goal and will end the practice of slopping out at Limerick Prison.

The Minister also noted the highly innovative accommodation which is built specifically for the needs of women.

The Minister said: “It is important that our prisons cater for the specific needs of women. This new facility has been carefully designed to meet these needs and will help the women prisoners there to address the factors that led to their offending and provide them with opportunities for a better life post imprisonment”.

Irish Prison Service Annual Report

On Irish Prison Service Annual Report, the Minister noted the prison system is now returning to more normal activity, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Irish Prison Service Annual Report notes the reduced committals to prison as a direct result of the impact of the pandemic. While this allowed the Irish Prison Service to keep prison numbers at a manageable level to support infection control in 2020 and 2021, 2022 has seen a sustained increase in prisoner numbers being experienced across the system.
We are expanding capacity, not just here in Limerick but also with the additional spaces that have already been provided by the reopening of the Training Unit in Mountjoy Prison as a facility for older prisoners earlier this summer.
I know that the need to ensure the continued availability of modern prison facilities with adequate capacity will be central to the development of the new Irish Prison Service Capital Strategy 2023″.

The Minister added: “Considerable progress has been made on the Programme for Government commitment to consider the mental health and addiction challenges of those imprisoned, and primary care support on release.
I met recently with the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, and Ministers of State Frank Feighan and Mary Butler to discuss the work of the High Level Taskforce to consider the mental health and addiction challenges of persons interacting with the criminal justice system.
I look forward to bringing it to Government very soon”.

Minister McEntee also again took the opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of the Prison Service staff, in keeping those in custody, safe during the pandemic.

The Minister congratulated the Service on winning a Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Award in 2021 for “Leading Reform During COVID-19″, which was recognition of the efforts made by staff across the organisation to maintain the provision of essential services in the most challenging environment”.

The Minister said, “I would like to congratulate the Irish Prison Service for their notable success in the management of Covid-19 in our prisons and their continued protection of vulnerable people in a very challenging environment. Their service during the pandemic was an outstanding example of public effort, at its finest”.

The Minister also noted that the Irish Prison Service continued to implement its strategic objectives while managing the prison system throughout the pandemic and had, in most cases, met the Output Targets agreed with the Department of Justice including the advancement of the Limerick Prison construction project, the management of prison numbers, and the continued provision of essential prisoner services such as Psychology, Education, Work and Training and Drug Treatment.

A copy of the Irish Prison Service’s Annual Report for 2021 is available HERE.

(Note: Detailed information on the delivery of Output Targets is set out in Pages 11 – 13 and in the chapter on Strategic Objectives Pages 46 – 63.)

• Plan to reduce re-offending and improve community safety
• Focus on use of community sanctions
• Judicial discretion to set minimum tariffs for life sentences to be introduced

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, today announced that the government have approved the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024; together with an associated action plan.

The Programme for Government 2020 contains a broad range of policies and proposals that represent a coherent approach to enhancing and sustaining a more just and safe society. Completion of this review and its approval by Government delivers on the specific Programme for Government commitment to review policy options for prison and penal reform.

Publishing the Review the Minister stated: “I am delighted to publish the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024 today.

It is essential that the punishment that people receive matches the crime that they have committed. People who commit serious crimes which cause considerable harm and distress to victims, and to society as a whole, should be dealt with in a way that reflects the impact on victims and their family.

The government are committed to the principle that adequate, appropriate and proportional punishment for those who commit crime is an essential and central element of our criminal justice system, but core to our penal system is also the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration back in to society in order to reduce reoffending.

Reducing the overall rate of re-offending, is part of the government’s overall plan to ensure our communities are safe. This includes investment into An Garda Síochána, increasing the number of Gardaí and investing in new technologies such as body worn cameras and CCTV”.

Among the issues the review makes recommendations on, is reducing the use of short custodial sentences (especially sentences under 3 months) and exploring how the judiciary can be provided with a greater range of non-custodial sanctions. Community sanctions can play a role in addressing criminality, reducing reoffending and providing protection to the public while holding the individual accountable. Non-custodial sentences, which includes sentencing a person to undertake community service, means that a person can retain links to their own community (e.g. family connections, their job) which improves the chances that they will not re-offend.

The Minister continued: “Over the years our understanding of how educational, health and other policies can contribute to the prevention of crime and reoffending has grown.

We better understand how diverting people away from crime at the earliest possible stage has immense value in reducing crime, reducing the number of victims of crime and reducing the subsequent damage to victims and the families of offenders.

This review acknowledges that punishment alone does not prevent offending or make everyone safer. Interventions and services to promote better social behaviour, rehabilitation and end offending are necessary to drive and sustain real change.

The introduction of minimum tariffs for life sentences will ensure that judges can ensure that a convicted person will serve a minimum number of years before they are entitled to apply for parole. Judges would have to take into account aggravating and mitigating circumstances. In practice, it could mean, for example, that a judge could decide to impose a life sentence and stipulate that a minimum of 20, 25, or 30 years must be served”.

Including twenty one actions, the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024 identifies six priority actions; interventions that have been identified to reduce reoffending, support desistance from offending, avoid overcrowding in prisons, and reduce reliance on custodial sentences as the primary criminal sanction except where determined necessary and proportionate to the suffering of the victim, particularly in relation to serious crimes which may result in life sentences.

These six priorities are:

1. To consider the incorporation of prison as a sanction of last resort in statute, in relation to people who do not pose a risk of serious harm, to reduce reoffending and overcrowding in prisons.
2. To develop and expand the range of community based sanctions including alternatives to imprisonment to reduce re-offending and overcrowding in prisons.
3. To take forward the implementation plan of the taskforce established to consider the mental health and addiction challenges of those imprisoned and primary care support on release.
4. To ensure that all criminal justice policy decisions are pre-assessed to determine, as far as possible, their impact across the criminal justice sector.
5. To establish a Penal Policy Consultative Council.
6. To introduce judicial discretion to set minimum tariffs for life sentences and examine the effectiveness of use of mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes.

The Minister concluded by saying: “In many ways this is the beginning. The 21 actions recommended by this review include specific time-frames for delivery. It is my intention that over the next few years these actions will be incorporated into the relevant Justice Plan and the Implementation Oversight Group will regularly report to me on progress.

I would like to conclude by taking this opportunity to thank the cross-sectoral group. Their experience, insight, hard work and commitment were essential to realising this objective. I look forward to the positive changes their recommendations will realise across the criminal justice sector”.