Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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439. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of group intervention sessions currently being run in the IPS to target criminogenic factors, by institution and by year for the period of 2015 to date. [21313/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that my officials in the Irish Prison Service have advised that it is not possible to retrieve the information sought as it is not electronically recorded in one central area.

As such, the retrieval of this information would involve significant engagement and the manual examination of a considerable amount of records covering approximately 9 years. In the context of limited resources, such an examination would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and resources which could not be justified.

I have been advised however that group sessions are available across the Irish Prison estate and are provided by both Irish Prison Service staff and in-reach providers. Each group is considered in terms of the needs of the prisoner cohort, with a particular emphasis on targeting criminogenic factors. Groups include those provided within education units, psychological group therapy and offence related group interventions. Addiction support groups are delivered via Merchants Quay Ireland, including Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Mindfulness and Mentalisation Based Stress Reduction group programmes, and groups for those requiring support in relation to grief are also catered for, amongst many more.

I am informed that group based interventions are an extremely beneficial way of engaging people in custody because of the impact of peer to peer engagement and challenge and the experience of universality often experienced. Groups also have a positive impact on wait lists for those awaiting service provision.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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440. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average wait time for a generic prisoner to meet with both an addiction counsellor and psychology services for ongoing intervention, separate from for an initial assessment in person, for the period of 2015 to date, by institution, in tabular form.; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21314/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Prison Psychology Service provides an integrated service to people in custody. Specifically, this means the Psychology Service is responsible for both mental health and criminogenic (offence related) assessment and interventions.

The Irish Prison Psychology Service works primarily through a layered care model, providing primary, secondary and tertiary level mental health care to people in custody. A layered care model provides clients with access to a variety of responses, from minimal interventions such as whole population approaches with the Red Cross and primary care mental health interventions, to more specialist mental health and personality disorder treatments.

At any one time approximately 60% of referrals to the Psychology Service are specifically in relation to the mental health of people in custody. These referrals include; mood and anxiety disorders, stress related disorders, disorders of personality and behaviour, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) including Complex PTSD, self-harm and suicidal behaviour, substance use, eating disorders, psychosis and schizophrenia, addiction, dementias, cognitive decline, traumatic brain injuries, impulse disorders, and disorders of sexual preference.

In addition, the Service works to support people who present with various other intellectual, behavioural and emotional challenges for which different treatment approaches, or indeed multiple approaches, may be required.

Additionally, there are a variety of offence related issues that require additional treatments.

The Prison Service Psychology Service are proactively reducing time spent doing assessment, and in turn are increasing the amount of time allocated to intervention. This includes the fast track of prisoners into certain interventions directly from referral based on file review and consultation with the multidisciplinary team. It also includes the introduction of rolling groups in order to improve access to psychological therapy. A referral for some of these interventions may be opened on the system on the day it takes place and so this substantially decreases the average waiting times.

Bearing in mind that there are various factors that can contribute to the length of time an individual might be waiting to access services, the data presented below is an average of waiting times (in days) for all categories, excluding triage assessments, across each institution since 2015.

Average waiting time (in days) to access psychological services (excluding triage assessment) across prisons.

*There was no psychologist assigned to Loughan House during the years 2019, 2020, 2021, a part time Psychologist was assigned to Loughan House from December 22 to November 23.

**St Patrick’s Institution closed on 7th April 2017 however the transition of prisoners commenced in 2013. The 2016 data in respect of St Patrick’s would be included in the Mountjoy data, there was no psychologist assigned to St Patrick’s from May 2016.

*** Training Unit closed temporarily for repurposing.

****Highlighting how nuanced this data is, this figure is so high because of one particular individual’s waiting time for an MBT group, the referral was created in 2022 but backdated to 2017 as that is when he had completed a previous intervention. As such the overall time for Shelton Abbey’s average waiting time is inflated.

The Irish Prison Service also provides various services for prisoners with addiction in a structured, safe and professional way in line with international best practice. It is estimated that up to 70% of the prisoner population have addiction issues. The Irish Prison Service takes these issues very seriously and spends a sum in excess of €1M per annum on the provision of an addiction counselling service in Irish Prisons. This service is supplied by Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) who provide a prison-based addiction counselling service across the entire Irish Prison Service estate - with the exception of Arbour Hill Prison and the Training Unit where there was less clinical need for such a service, however this is currently being reviewed.

MQI do not currently record how long people wait to meet with an addiction counsellor for ongoing intervention, separate from an initial assessment. There are many local variables unique to each prison which can influence how long someone could remain on the waiting list. These factors include access, whether they are on remand, their expected date of release, where in the prison they reside (e.g. are they on protection or non-protection), and the individual work schedule of the person in custody themselves.

The Irish Prison Service also works closely with Alcoholic Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous who provide support to people in custody, and the Irish Prison Service has also recently engaged Gambling Awareness Trust in relation to interventions for those with gambling addiction. The Irish Prison Service is also in the process of implementing additional supports to people with addiction and mental health difficulties, including the 'Recovery College' model which provides education, training and workshops, and the introduction of an Addiction Studies course.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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441. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for those prisoners in the Mountjoy Prison progression unit who are being put back into general population, what unique perks and rehabilitation services they will have access to reflect their progressed status. [21315/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that until recently, people convicted of, or on remand for, sexual violence were accommodated at four primary locations – Midlands Prison, Arbour Hill Prison, Castlerea Prison and Mountjoy Training Unit. However, due to rising committals to prison for those convicted of sexual violence, it was decided to consider other options within the prison estate to accommodate this cohort.

The Progression Unit of Mountjoy Prison is self-sufficient in relation to recreation, education, work and training and there is no requirement for those living in this Unit to interact or traverse to the main prison. For this reason, it was decided that the Progression Unit is a suitable location to accommodate people convicted of, or on remand for, sexual violence.

The process of accommodating this cohort in the Progression Unit commenced during March 2024. On 29 April 2024, a total of 36 people had been accommodated in the Progression Unit and it is expected that further incremental movements of this cohort of offender to the Progression Unit will take place in the coming months.

Those who are currently accommodated in the Progression Unit, who are not serving their sentences for sexual violence will be moved to alternative suitable accommodation within the prison estate. Transfers and temporary release decisions will be made taking into account criteria including nature and gravity of offence, amount of time spent in custody and amount left on a prisoner’s sentence, information from An Garda Síochána, engagement with services and behaviour in custody – with public safety being paramount when these decisions are being made. Some may be moved to Open Centres with the additional freedom and integration supports that these areas of the prison estate provide. Others will move to another closed prison, and some may be released to one of the early release schemes.

The majority of prisoners moving from the Progression Unit are likely to be eligible for integrated sentence management and therefore their individual needs will be assessed on transfer to another closed prison or open centre. A sentence plan is drafted with the multidisciplinary team having regard to the services that are available in that prison and the strengths, risks and needs of that individual.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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442. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of sex offenders who have completed mandatory group work of the total sex offender population by institution in the Irish prison system in the past five years. [21316/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, sexual violence, our understanding of it, and its assessment and treatment has evolved over time.

The Building Better Lives (BBL) programme has been delivered as the treatment programme for sexual offending since 2009 in Irish Prisons. It is based on Canada’s Rockwood model of treatment. The programme is provided over two stages; a shorter motivational group (Exploring Better Lives; EBL) and the longer term more intensive treatment group, Practicing Better Lives (PBL). Typically eight participants attend each group, so 16 in total at any one time. The programme is currently delivered in Arbour Hill Prison. Participation is not mandatory as imposed interventions are compromised in their efficacy as well as raising ethical and legal concerns.

Based on the information provided by the Irish Prison Service, the number of participants who completed the Building Better Lives programme (both EBL and PBL) in the last 5 years is as set out as follows in tabular format. It is not possible to divide this number by institution; people convicted of sexual violence have typically been accommodated in four locations including the Midlands Prison, Arbour Hill Prison, the Training Unit in Mountjoy Prison and Castlerea Prison with the majority of treatment occurring in Arbour Hill Prison.

*Covid 19 restrictions and the consequent reduction of group therapies and one to one therapy should be considered in 2020 and 2021 data where some participants may have only had the opportunity to partially engage in this treatment intervention process.

The primary reason for low participation rates is the strict inclusion and exclusion criteria for participation, including the requirement for stability of mental health and personality, sufficient sentence length, being assessed as moderate to high risk of re-offending, and capacity to engage in group programmes. Those who deny their offence are also excluded. Those appealing their offence often deny all or part of their offending also, therefore ‘denial’ as an exclusion criteria constitutes a significant percentage of the population.

Whilst the completion of BBL tends to be a particular focus for attention, it is important to note that the figures above represent only those who have fully completed the BBL programme (both EBL and PBL). Other assessment and intervention pillars are provided by the Irish Prison Service and Probation Service for people convicted of sexual violence. As many people convicted of sexual violence do not meet criteria for BBL because of particularly complex presentations, there are various other pillars of intervention and management available, depending on the person’s strengths, needs and risks. A significant number of those who are released who do not participate in BBL are managed in this way. Interventions include:

• Individual offence focused work by Irish Prison Service Psychology / Probation Service;
• Individual or group work focused on mental health, emotional regulation or other offence related need by Irish Prison Service Psychology Service;
• Probation Service engagement inc. risk assessment and management where the individual has a Post Release Supervision Order. This includes a handover to community based Probation Officer prior to release;
• Psychology ‘Pathways to Change’ group (focuses on an introduction to risk factors);
• Engagement with prison in-reach Psychiatry for stabilisation and maintenance of mental health where a mental health diagnosis is made;
• Education and Work training;
• Integrated Sentence Management;
• Engagement with the Irish Association for the Social Integration of Offenders (IASIO);
• Engagement with Resettlement Services;
• Sex Offender Risk Assessment and Management (SORAM);
• Safer Lives Community Sexual Violence Group Work Treatment Programme (and allied community interventions).