Prison service embarks on €400m building project to ease overcrowding
Irish Prison Service
(IPS) has embarked on a €400 million project to increase prison spaces by a third in response to an overcrowding crisis.
The project will involve refurbishing and expanding existing facilities while also building a new facility at
Thornton Hall
in
Dublin
.
The proposed construction would be the most significant expansion of the prison system in State history.
However, sources warned that few funds have been allocated yet and the completion of the project will depend on many factors, including the availability of capital and revisions to the
National Development Plan
.
READ MORE
Irish prisons are currently at 118 per cent capacity, with around 5,500 inmates occupying space designed for 4,600. In response, the Government has committed to constructing 1,500 additional spaces.
The roadmap to providing these spaces is set out in a collection of tendering documents from the IPS, which is seeking to establish a panel of qualified construction firms to handle the project.
The first stage of the project is the expansion of D Wing in Cloverhill, a prison in Dublin mainly used to house inmates on remand. The four-storey expansion will include 'modern cells' with toilets along with disabled access and close-supervision cells. New fences, yards and security infrastructure will also be built.
Under preliminary plans, this will be followed by the construction of new wings at Mountjoy and Midlands Prison. New inmate accommodation will also be built at Cork Prison.
According to tendering documents, contractors may also be asked to undertake 'possible enabling and ancillary works at Thornton Hall' followed by the construction of accommodation buildings there.
The Programme for Government commits to the construction of a new prison at Thornton Hall. The site in county Dublin was first purchased by the Department of Justice in 2005 for €151 million with a view to constructing a large prison there to replace Mountjoy.
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However, these plans were shelved when the recession hit. Last year, it was expected that the site would accommodate up to 1,000 asylum seekers. However, this plan was delayed by a court challenge from local residents. It has also been proposed as a location for social housing.
According to the documents, the prison building project is estimated to cost about €400 million plus VAT over the course of four years.
'It should be noted that this may change in light of economic circumstances, availability of funding and the overall operational needs and requirements of the Irish Prison Service,' the IPS states.
Several other measures have been adopted to reduce prison numbers, including the expansion of temporary release and community service programmes.
The IPS is also consulting the Defence Forces about the possibility of reopening the military prison in the Curragh Camp for civilian purposes. This could provide up to 100 additional spaces.
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