merrion street

Justice Minister Alan Shatter today published the Thornton Hall Review Group Report. The Minister confirmed that the Government approved in principle the Report’s recommendations.

Minister Shatter said:

I very much welcome the Government’s decision to accept, in principle, the recommendations detailed in the Report.The timeframe for theThornton Hall and Kilworth Prisons projects as outlined in the Report will be discussed in the Autumn in the context of the Government’s discussions on capital spending priorities for 2012.

The Review Group’s view is that decisive action is required on several fronts to address the problem of overcrowding and poor physical conditions, particularly in Mountjoy and Cork Prisons. It stresses the need to improve prison regimes and conditions and to provide in-cell sanitation.

It recommends: [1] that a new prison with 300 cells capable of accommodating 500 prisoners be developed at Thornton Hall, and [2] that Cork Prison be closed at the earliest possible opportunity and a new prison developed at Kilworth, Co Cork, with 200 cells capable of accommodating up to 350 prisoners. The Report also recommends that each site should have secure, step-down accommodation inside the prison walls effectively providing an open centre regime within a secure perimeter. Thornton Hall should have 20 step-down facilities capable of accommodating up to 200 prisoners, and

Kilworth should have 15 step-down facilities capable of accommodating up to 150 prisoners.

The Minister said:

Taking this step would enable prison authorities to give greater operational effect to the ‘principle of progression’ in the penal system. This objective requires managing safely

and purposefully the transition of offenders from committal to a prison cell to eventual release into the community. The proposed prison complexes will allow the prison authorities to create incentivised prison regimes to allow offenders progress through the system in a way that helps their eventual reintegration into society. This recognises in a practical way that reintegration of offenders into society is one of the core functions of the prison system.

While acknowledging the difficult economic and financial constraints facing the country, the Minister said that he was acutely conscious that in recent years prisoner numbers and the numbers on temporary release have increased dramatically.