Limerick Prison overcrowding
Conor Sheehan raised damning inspectorate findings on overcrowding, especially in the women’s wing of Limerick Prison, and argued it reflected criminal justice failure. The Taoiseach accepted overcrowding is serious but said the issue is broader than the prison system alone and pointed to wider social and diversion measures.
I want to raise the issue of prison overcrowding, particularly in relation to Limerick Prison. The Office of the Inspector of Prisons’ report is damning. Limerick Prison and its women's wing have one of the worst levels of overcrowding in the prison estate. The official bed capacity was at 155% last year. Overcrowding is impacting on the physical, psychological and emotional safety of women who are living in rooms originally intended as single accommodation. Overcrowding is a result of the failure of criminal justice policy. It compromises the provision and effectiveness of rehabilitation. Deaths in prison are up by 50% in the last year. What action will the Government take to reduce the number of women in prison? What credible alternatives to custody will the Government bring forward for women to address this? We have had so many reports but little action.
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We have had a lot of action, actually. I would question some of the premises on which we base all of this talk. First, I accept that there is a big overcrowding issue.
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I accept that fully, Deputy. I take that on board, but we have a lot of youth diversion and school completion programmes. We have the highest school completion rate in Europe, so we need to do a bit more analysis-----
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I am asking about women in particular.
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I am just talking about society in general. The Deputy spoke generally about overcrowding and how it is a failure of the criminal justice system, but I am not sure it is. We need a broader analysis of the forces that are giving rise to some people ending up in prison who, perhaps, should not have ended up in prison. I refer to the whole addiction issue, the issue around drugs, drug trafficking and all of that. It is a bit more complex than just blaming the system. A societal response is required. The Minister has come up with short-to-medium-term measures to try to deal with overcrowding and get buildings built. Youth diversion programmes, alternative rehabilitative pathways and alternatives to custodial sentences are also being perused.