New virtual tour of Irish prison aims to reduce anxiety among incoming prisoners and visitors
The first-of-its-kind digital tour walks the user through what it is like to enter the prison as an incoming inmate and a visitor.
It uses 360 degree images to create a virtual recreation of the facility, with interactive buttons to move around and get more information.
Image of the prison processing centre at Midlands Prison used in the virtual tour.
Irish Prison Service
Irish Prison Service
Real CCTV footage from Midlands Prison and audio records of what it sounds like to be in an Irish prison are played throughout the tour.
The entire experience is understood to be as close as possible to what is it like to be processed as a prisoner or attend a monitored visit at an Irish prison.
Irish Prison Service (IPS) management hope that the introduction of the online tool will allow people who are set to be housed in Irish prisons can familiarise themselves with the services and resources available to them while in custody.
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CCTV recordings of the yard at Midlands Prison is included to show incoming prisoners how others use the area.
Irish Prison Service
Irish Prison Service
Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan is set to unveil the new initiative at a prison in Dublin this morning. He will also announce a new recruitment drive for prison officers.
While the IPS hopes that the virtual tour will inform incoming inmates of the resources available to them while in prison, there are large waiting lists for addiction and counselling services once inside.
Speaking today, O'Callaghan welcomed the virtual tour and claimed that it would improve the public's understanding of how prisons work.
'It can also serve as a positive recruitment tool to provide those contemplating a career as a prison officer with the ability to tour their future workplace,' he added.
A virtual prison officer standing at the visitors' entrance of Midlands Prison, as seen in the tour.
Irish Prison Service
Irish Prison Service
There are currently 2,000 people on the waiting list for psychology services in Irish prisons,
director general Caron McCaffery told
The Journal
this year
. The service has capacity to provide care to 600 prisoners at one time.
A new system of peer-led addiction counselling programmes is set to be introduced to assist with these waiting lists.
The new recruitment drive is seeking to employ 300 people into full-time roles in the Irish Prison Service.
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