The Irish Prison Service today published the Service's Annual Report for the year 2007. The main statistical highlights of the Report are as follows:

There were 11,934 committals to prison in 2007, of which 47.9% were committals under sentence.
9,711 persons were sent to prison in 2007 compared to 9,700 in 2006.
The daily average number of persons in custody in 2007 was 3,321 an increase of 4.1% on 2006.
Of those committed 6,447 were Irish nationals or 66.4% of the total 9,711, which is a decrease of 352 on the corresponding 2006 figure of 6,799. Almost one third of persons committed in 2007 were non–Irish nationals.
Other EU nationals (excluding Ireland) accounted for 1,354 (13.9%) of persons committed.
There were 6,455 committals under sentence in 2007 as compared with 5,802 in 2006.
The average number of persons serving sentences who were on temporary release during 2007 was 153 or approximately 5% of the average total number of prisoners in the system.
There were 6,455 committals under sentence during the year, which was an increase on the 2006 figure of 5,802. While the number of persons committed serving sentences of less than 2 years has remained largely unchanged, the numbers committed serving longer sentences has increased significantly and the numbers committed serving sentences of 10 years and over have more than doubled (mainly for sexual and drug offences).
Sentenced committals for drug offences were up significantly from 395 or 6.8 percent of the 2006 total to 529 or 8.2 percent of the 2007 total, an increase of 33.9 percent in this category.
Sentenced committals for road traffic offences increased from 1,452 in 2006 (25.0 percent of the 2006 total) to 1,565 (24.2 percent of the 2007 total) in 2007. This represents an increase of 7.8 percent in this category.

Cost of Keeping a Prisoner
In relation to the cost of keeping an offender in custody, the average cost in 2007 was €97,700. This represents an increase on the 2006 cost and is mainly due to National Pay Agreement increases.

Enhanced Security Measures
In June 2007, the Government approved the resources necessary for the introduction of a package of new security measures. These measures will target the routes whereby contraband such as drugs, weapons and mobile phones are trafficked into prisons. Since then the Irish Prison Service has been putting in place the necessary physical infrastructure for these measures and recruiting the extra staff.

The additional resources allow for;
the establishment of a Drug Detection Dog Unit;
the introduction of security screening for all personnel entering our closed prisons, including walk-through metal detectors and x-ray scanners;
the establishment of Operational Support Units in each closed prison; and,
the opening of new remand segregation units for serious drug and criminal gang members.

In April 2007, the Irish Prison Service commenced the development of ground-breaking technology in the Midlands/Portlaoise Prison Complex to prevent the use of mobile phones in prisons. Evaluation of the project so far has yielded positive results and, if confirmed, the inhibitors will be installed in all our closed prisons.

The Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2007 is available on the Irish Prison Service website www.irishprisons.ie.

19 December 2008

For further information please contact :
Seán Sullivan
Press Officer
Irish Prison Service

e-mail: pressoffice@irishprisons.ie
phone: 043 35203