Prison officer shortages impacts inmate education programmes

The worst impacted prison so far this year has been Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon, where there have been 37 full day closures.

A lack of prison staffing and overcrowding has been blamed for inmates in prisons across the country being unable to access education on 74 days up to the end of August.

The figures were released by the Department of Justice to Green Party TD Patrick Costello.

They show that the worst impacted prison so far this year has been Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon, where there have been 37 full day closures.

Limerick Prison saw 15 days where no education could take place, while Wheatfield Prison had 13 days of closures.

Across all of 2022, there were 122 days where prisoners were unable to access education, with Limerick Prison, Cloverhill Prison and Wheatfield Prison being the worst impacted.

Education days themselves are typically cancelled due to a shortage of prison officer staff on a given day, with officers being moved to cover either court escort activity or for transferring prisoners to hospital.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) criticised the figures, saying that previously promised funding to support people attending education within prisons has “not materialised”.

“Education is a vital aspect of human development and is a basic human right. Time and time again, research has shown that people who participate in education and training programmes are less likely to return to prison,” said IPRT executive director Saoirse Brady.

Ms Brady added that two-thirds of all people committed to prison are there for less than 12 months, making it more difficult for prison services to provide “meaningful educational services”.

“Avoiding sending people to prison on short sentences where possible and focusing on more community-based sanctions is key to reducing the pressures of overcrowding in prison and the knock-on impacts this has, such as delivery of meaningful education for people on longer sentences,” Ms Brady said.

She also said that both shortfalls in staffing and “severe overcrowding” are detrimental to education and it is undermining the positive work carried out across prisons.

Mr Costello said that there has been repeated emphasis on the importance of education for prisoners, due to the large number of people incarcerated being early school leavers.

“About 70% of the prison population are early school leavers. If we are serious about giving people a second chance, if we are serious about reducing re-offending than we need to ensure access to education,” Mr Costello said.

“The challenges accessing education in prison is that it need to be facilitated by prison officers. There are pressures on the prison service in terms of staffing levels, facilitating court hearing, facilitating visits.”

Earlier this year, the Oireachtas Justice Committee found that there needed to be improvements made within the prison system to ensure that people incarcerated are rehabilitated upon their release.

Recommendations made by the Committee included reducing the overall prison population by expanding community-based sanctions and addressing first-time offenders who are handed down custodial sentences.