Jail's inmates costing taxpayer's €270,000 each a year

Each inmate at Ireland’s top security Portlaoise jail costs taxpayer's more than €250,000 a year, it was revealed today.

An average of 117 people were behind bars at the prison during last year, mostly hardened criminals and dissident paramilitaries.

Every one cost the State €269,800 during 2007, according to the Irish Prison Service annual report.

The report also revealed that almost a third of the 9,711 people in jails across Ireland last year were foreign nationals, although a large proportion were there over immigration issues.

Inmates at Shelton Abbey, an open prison in Co Wicklow, are the second most expensive, each costing the public purse €107,800 a year.

Young offenders at St Patrick’s Institution, in north Dublin, cost €106,800 a year.

Portlaoise topped the financial table because of heightened security measures, which includes a round-the-clock deployment by the Irish army.

The prison hit the headlines in May last year after inmate John Daly rang RTE’s Liveline from his cell with a mobile phone.

It sparked a clampdown on contraband within the prisons service, which turned up numerous mobile phones, drugs and a budgie.

On average it cost the taxpayer€97,700 for every prisoner behind bars in 2007.

Rising wage bills of prison officers were mainly responsible for pushing the figure up by 6,000 euro on 2006.

There were on average 3,000 offenders behind bars each day – a 4% jump on 2006.

The vast majority of prisoners – 88% – were male. The number of people serving a life sentence jumped almost 30%, from 18 in 2006 to 22 in 2007.

Prisoners serving drugs sentences also increased significantly, from 395 in 2006 to 530 last year.