Minister for Children Katherine Zappone explains the changes being made to Oberstown Detention Centre to help young detainees have a future

A special prison unit is being set up to house the country’s most violent prisoners.

Prison bosses are considering the roll-out of weapons amnesties following the success of an amnesty in Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison.

Prison authorities are struggling to combat the problem of smuggling in Irish jails, with new figures revealing that more than 3,200 drug seizures have taken place in prisons over the past three years.

More than 2,000 litres of homemade alcohol has been seized from prisoners over the past two years.

A teacher alleging her career in the prison services was “destroyed” after a mobile phone was detected in her bra strap when passing through a security check at the Mountjoy Prison complex has told the High Court she never tried to smuggle anything into any jail she worked.

The ringleader behind an “appalling” attack in which a student was “frog marched” to an ATM machine and told to withdraw money or his girlfriend would be raped by two accomplices, has won an appeal against his sentence.

A prison watchdog has raised concerns at the ability of Oberstown children’s detention school to handle violent 17-year-old offenders.

Plans are being put in place to deploy mobile phone blocking systems in prisons to prevent inmates running criminal operations from their cells.

A man who pointed a bolt action rifle at gardaí in “a threatening and aggressive manner” has been jailed for seven years for this, a burglary and a “mini riot” in a detention centre.

Cultural problems in child detention centres and the proper resourcing of inspection agencies are among a range of issues that need to be tackled, according to a new report.

Inmates under protection in Mountjoy are kept in "unacceptable" conditions, fuelling "obvious tension" in the prison’s separation unit.

Assaults on prison officers increased by 50% last year — and almost one-third of them occurred in a young offenders institution.

Appalling conditions and overcrowding throughout Mountjoy on the night of July 31, 2006, meant seven vulnerable prisoners were packed into one holding cell supposedly for their own protection.

Serious overcrowding, violence and cuts in resources have impacted on inmates in the prison system, according to the Visiting Committee.

A LITTLE over 10 years ago a group of young Irish people were brought together to conduct an interview. It was the first time in Ireland’s history – as far as I know, the only time — that the advice of young people was sought on a major public appointment.

There is “no strong evidence” the drugs problem in Irish prisons is reducing, despite the massive security infrastructure put in place, according to a new report.

All young people sentenced to St Patrick’s Institution have been transferred out of the detention facility — which has been dogged by controversy and scandal.

A former girlfriend of the man who shot 16-year-old Melanie McCarthy McNamara has been found in contempt of court after she failed to turn up as a witness at his trial.

Teenager Daniel McDonnell has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Melanie McCarthy McNamara.

The teenager charged with murdering Melanie McCarthy McNamara was a protected prisoner when he allegedly wrote a letter containing the phrase: ‘Two in the head. The bitch is dead’.

The teenager charged with murdering Melanie McCarthy McNamara was a protected prisoner when he allegedly wrote a letter containing the phrase: "Two in the head. The bitch is dead".

A jury has been told that the teenager charged with murdering 16-year-old Melanie McCarthy McNamara allegedly bragged about shooting her in graffiti on his cell wall.

Tom leans forward on the table and is eager to talk. Fellow inmate Frank leans to the side and holds a hand to his head.

Renegade bishop Michael Cox charged a teenage couple — one of them underage — €100 for a ‘sham’ marriage.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has confirmed Garda recruitment will recommence today with an estimated 300 posts being offered.

A 20-year-old man with special needs, who has been charged with the murder of his mother, did not attend a scheduled court sitting yesterday because of illness.

A 20-year-old man with special needs has been charged with the murder of his mother at their home last Wednesday.

The 19-year-old son of Susan Dunne, who was found dead at her north Kerry home on Wednesday, has appeared in court charged with her murder.

The prison service expects fewer than 1,000 phones to be confiscated in jails this year, with figures also indicating that fewer people are smuggling drugs in to inmates.

A 17-year-old who has been in custody for 232 days has still not had a probation officer assigned to him, the Children’s Court in Killarney was told yesterday.

Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald has hailed the start of work on the new national children’s detention facility on the Oberstown campus as a major step on the road to overhauling children’s services.

As a Limerick youth, described by his family as dangerous, was at large last night, Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald was accused of gross incompetence in failing to provide adequate places of detention for troubled teenage boys.

Self-harm incidents more than doubled in St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders last year.

Prisoners subjected to 22 and 23 hour lock-up are at greater risk of mental health, campaigners have said.

Gardaí are investigating an alleged assault on a woman while she visited a relative in Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) at the weekend.

Ten members of staff at a children’s detention centre have been on sick leave for more than a year, it has emerged.

The Ombudsman for Children has queried concerns from staff on the campus of the Oberstown detention schools that they are not trained to deal with 16 and 17-year-old boys.

The Children’s Ombudsman says she has received assurances that prison staff suspected of mistreating young offenders at St Patrick’s Institution will be left behind when St Patrick’s closes and its teenage inmates move to Wheatfield Prison.

Concerns are being raised as to how the educational and childcare requirements of young offenders being transferred from St Patrick’s Institution to Wheatfield Prison are going to be met.

The following are some of the “very disturbing” breaches of prisoners’ fundamental rights at St Patrick’s Institution as outlined by Inspector of Prisons Judge Michael Kelly.

Young offenders are being verbally abused, denied basic rights and held in cold, filthy cells with broken toilets filled with excrement.

A “rigid, inflexible culture” and the persistent behaviour of a “small cohort” of prison officers has forced the authorities to scrap St Patrick’s Institution, the head of the Irish Prison Service has said.