Welcome to the Irish Prison Service website.

Our new website has been designed to provide as much information to users as possible on the role of the Prison Service, our prisons and the services we offer to both prisoners and the victims of crime.

The launch of the website coincides with the launch of a new Three Year Strategic Plan for the Service.

Our Strategy is underpinned by the principles of dignity and respect and these principles will be at the heart of what the Service sets out to achieve over the period of the Strategy.

The Strategy contains a new mission statement and vision for the Irish Prison Service – a mission to “provide safe and secure custody, dignity of care and rehabilitation to prisoners for safer communities” and a vision for the Service of “a safer community through excellence in a prison service built on respect for human dignity.”

Our Strategy is built on a number of overarching high level objectives, namely:

• Increasing public safety by maintaining safe and secure custody for all those committed by the courts and by reducing reoffending and improving prisoner rehabilitation through the development of a multiagency approach to offending;
• Ensuring Ireland’s compliance with domestic and international human rights obligations and best practice; and
• Delivering reform and implementing change in accordance with the Public Service Agreement and the Integrated Reform Plan for the Justice and Equality sector.

And we are now setting out on implementing a challenging reform programme to deliver on these objectives through the achievement of a number of strategic actions including:

• the elimination of slopping out across the prison estate
• the replacement of outdated accommodation and facilities in Mountjoy, Cork and Limerick prisons
• ending the detention of juveniles at St. Patrick’s Institution, and
• the enhancement of current programmes and services for prisoners including accredited education and vocational training.

This is a challenging and exciting time for the Irish Prison Service.