AT £46,500 per head, the current annual cost of keeping an offender in a State prison could be matched with a bit of negotiation by any medium range to top hotel.
The Fianna Fail whip, Mr Ivor Callely, has called the situation ridiculous. He says the administration of justice is now synonymous with "widespread abuse of taxpayers funds". Prison does not represent a "penalty", when so many services are provided for the offender at State expense, he said yesterday.
Mr Callely, who tabled a series of written questions on the issue in the Dail earlier this week, said that the practice whereby prisoners could even make calls to mobile phones without restriction represented an appalling waste. Replying to his questions, the Minister, Mrs Owen, gave a breakdown of projected costs this year.
Clothing is expected to cost about £600,000; provisions £2.8 million; gym equipment, £100,000; library materials, £40,000; and transistor radios, £605. The total cost of upkeep of the prison system is projected at £102.4 million for this year.
The cost of keeping an offender in jail in 1996, at a little over £800 a week, does not include the price of permanent prison staff, the Department of Justice has said.
"Offenders can get denim jackets, socks, shirts, briefs, bras, pullovers, individual physical education instruction, swimming, volleyball, daily issues of the Financial Times," Mr Callely said.
"If the staffing figure was added to the total bill, it would be astronomical. It is a bit of a joke that so many support services are available to people who have breached the law."
The rehabilitation factor was no justification, Mr Callely said. He, had requested figures from the Department on the number of reoffenders, but these had not been provided because "the Minister doesn't want to give it out". Mr Callely asked if prisoners participated in "hard labour". The Minister said the term referred to a sentencing option which was on the statute books, but was "never nowadays imposed by the courts."
Among the newspapers and magazines provided within the prison service in 1995, at a cost of £13,085 to the Exchequer, were The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Mirror, Star, London papers including the Independent and Guardian and periodicals including, Computer Magazine, Technology Ireland, and the Dandy and Beano. Weeklies like The Farmer's Journal and magazines like Ultra Fit and Garden and Answers were also on the list.
