Ahern opens new Wheatfield block

More than 500 new prison spaces will be built in the next two years to alleviate overcrowding in the system, the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has said.

Speaking at the opening of a new block in Wheatfield Prison, the Minister said the State needed a medium-term strategy to deal with prison overcrowding while the so-called “super-prison” at Thornton Hall is being built.

The new three storey block at Wheatfield Prison has 176 cells with a potential to house more than 200 prisoners. Each cell, which measure either 12-13 metres square, has its own sanitation unit, television and call system.

There is a segregation unit for prisoners requiring more specialised management, a new medical centre and recreation and office accommodation.

The minister announced that a new accommodation block in Portlaoise/Midlands prison will provide 300 prison spaces by 2012, work is due to commence on the Dóchas site to provide 70 new places by the end of this year, while there will be 100 more prison spaces in Castlerea Prison and 50 in Shelton Abbey with tenders to be issued shortly.

Mr Ahern said better detection by gardaí had led to an increase of more than 400 in the prison population over the last year and that prison overcrowding was an international phenomenon.

He said the Government remained committed to the building of Thornton Hall which, when complete, will be able to accommodate up to 2,200 prisoners.

The tender for the off-site services including electricity and water will be granted next month and the perimeter wall will begin in the first quarter of 2011.

He told reporters afterwards that the prison building programme was a priority despite the economic downturn.

He also said that legislation to stop debtors going to jail was going to be introduced imminently.

He described the jailing of debtors who do not pay fine as “nonsense” and said he would also be bringing forward legislation that would compel judges to offer community service instead of prison terms for minor offenders.