Numbers in Oberstown fall to historically low levels

Previous research has shown that 71% of those detained at Oberstown Children Detention Campus (pictured) were considered to have substance misuse, more than half were not engaged in education prior to detention, and 41% were either in care before detention or had significant involvement with Tusla. File picture: Colin Keegan

The country's main youth detention facility managed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic by facilitating the early release of 29 children, including 22 who were able to serve the remainder of their sentence in the community.

The insight is included in a new book on Oberstown Children Detention Campus by the chair of the Board of Management, Professor Ursula Kilkelly, and by its former director, Pat Bergin, in which they also outline the steps which have resulted in historically low levels of detention there.

The book, Advancing Children's Rights in Detention, will be launched this Wednesday and outlines how "the number of children in Oberstown on detention and remand orders has fallen, year on year".

By 2020, when Oberstown accommodated all children on remand and detention orders up to 18 years of age following the closure in 2016 of St Patrick's Institute for Young Offenders, Oberstown was home to 122 young people, down from 159 four years earlier. Over the same period, the average daily population decreased from 42 to 36.

Previous research has shown that 71% of those detained were considered to have substance misuse, more than half were not engaged in education prior to detention, and 41% were either in care before detention or had significant involvement with Tusla. A significant minority had also experienced a mental health difficulty or the loss of a parent, and almost a quarter were at risk of neglect.

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Referring to examples of the flexibility open to management at Oberstown, the book states: "These powers have also played an important part in Oberstown’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic, where 29 children for whom this was an appropriate and suitable option, were permitted to leave detention early, of whom 22 were supported to successfully complete their sentence in the community."

Writing in today's Irish Examiner, Prof. Kilkelly and Mr Bergin said changes at the facility included a greater level of involvement by young people detained in Oberstown in the decisions that affect them.

"The building blocks for this process of change included an explicit commitment in national law and policy to the goal to be achieved and the allocation of budget to resource that ambition," they said.

Referring to the process of reform, they wrote: "While this may mean different things at different times – leadership development to support staff, investment in IT to gather data or securing facilities management to maintain the physical environment – it is the clarity of this core objective – set out in law both nationally and internationally – that has been the driver."