gov - Minister Flanagan launches Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022 & IPS/ETBI Prisons Education Strategy 2019

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, has today launched the new Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022. The Minister also launched a new Irish Prison Service/Educational Training Boards Ireland Joint Prison Education Strategy.

Minister Flanagan noted that improvement to the governance structures of the Irish Prison Service, including the appointment of a new Prisons Advisory Board, was at the core of the new Strategic Plan: “Over the years various reports have called for reform of the governance of the Irish Prison Service, most recently recommendations were made in the Effectiveness and Renewal Group Report regarding the transformation of the Department of Justice and Equality, which repeated the recommendation that the Irish Prison Service become a scheduled office under primary legislation. This is very important and my Department is working with the Director General, and the Irish Prison Service, to design a new governance framework for the Prison Service which will strengthen governance, compliance and accountability.”

“This new governance structure, together with the new Advisory Board, will support existing external oversight of the Irish Prison Service already in place” he added.

The Minister noted the continued focus on staff support contained in the new Strategy saying “I want to acknowledge the enhanced supports provided by the Irish Prison Service for staff in recent years. Improvements in working conditions, improvements in staff support and counselling and improvements in training ensure that our staff have the skills and supports needed to perform what is a challenging role in a unique and sometimes difficult environment”.

Speaking about the launch of the new Prisons Education Strategy the Minister noted the importance of the relationship between the Irish Prison Service and the Educational Training Boards and the key role of education in providing rehabilitative opportunities for prisoners. “The joint Irish Prison Service and ETB mission emphasises the provision of a programme that is “quality assured, learner-centred and that facilitates life-long learning, while helping persons in custody respond to their sentence through personal development and positive renewal” said the Minister

“The joint strategy for prison education sets out the agreed supports for providing a broadly-based prison education service, making effective use of digital systems for teaching and learning, and integration with other prison services and with the library service” he added.

The Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022 can be read here.

The IPS/ETBI Prisons Education Strategy 2019 – 2022 can be read here.

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Note for Editors

The new Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan includes 5 key Pillars

Staff Support
Prisoner Support
Safe and Secure Custody
The Prison estate and
Governance

Aims of new Strategic Plan 2019 - 2022

enhanced services for staff and positive physical and mental health of all employees
all staff are confident and competent to perform safely and effectively in their duties
enhanced psychological services for the provision of mental health services and offence-specific interventions to people in custody
provision and enhancement of healthcare services
increased participation in rehabilitative activities by prisoners
improved coordination of community integration plans in preparation for release of prisoners
a more modern technology-driven prison estate for safer prisons
contribute to safer communities through prisoner progression and tackling over-crowding and over-capacity
a fairer, simpler prisoner complaints system
enhanced organisation governance structure by continuing to strengthen internal governance and risk management, information and security systems

Recent Achievements

The Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan 2016 – 2018 expired in December 2018. The Strategy was built on 4 key Strategic aims namely Support for Staff; Support for Prisoners; Support for Victims and Enhancing Organisation Capacity.

During the lifetime of the Strategic the Irish Prison service realised a number of significant achievements including inter alia:

the removal of children from the adult prison system through the closure of St. Patricks Institution
the almost complete elimination of slopping out through the modernisation of the prison estate including the refurbishment of Mountjoy Prison and the opening of a new prison in Cork
the continued roll out of prisoner programmes in collaboration with partners in the criminal justice system such as Community Return, community support and the Joint Agency Response to Crime
the introduction of a new Statutory Instrument (S.I. 276 of 2017) to bring Ireland into line with the UN Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners in respect of restricted regimes and solitary confinement
the development of a National Violence Reduction Unit for the management of offenders who represent the highest risk of violence to staff, other prisoners and communities

Minister Flanagan launches Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022 & IPS/ETBI Prisons Education Strategy 2019 – 2022

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