{"id":371115,"date":"2026-03-29T09:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T09:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/371115\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T09:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T09:03:09","slug":"detention-centre-for-deportees-may-be-considered-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/371115\/","title":{"rendered":"Detention centre for deportees may be considered \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A detention centre specifically for people facing deportation may be considered, after it emerged the Garda National Immigration Bureau<\/a> (GNIB) is leaving detainees at overcrowded prisons without prior consultation.<\/p>\n

Gary Gannon, the Social Democrats<\/a>\u2019 justice spokesman, described the bureau\u2019s actions as \u201cextraordinary\u201d.<\/p>\n

He highlighted prison overcrowding at Mountjoy women\u2019s prison, the D\u00f3chas Centre, which was operating at 153 per cent capacity last week.<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> confirmed there were 223 women in custody in Mountjoy at the time, 29 of whom were on mattresses. The centre\u2019s bed capacity is 146. <\/p>\n

Expressing concern at the overcrowding, the Minister said there are plans to build another 65 spaces across the prison system in 2026, 26 of which will be new spaces for the D\u00f3chas Centre. This, he confirmed, would increase capacity to 172.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan did not believe \u201cprisons are the solution to all of the ills of society\u201d, instead saying a \u201ccombined approach\u201d was needed. He said the Probation Service would this year provide over \u20ac21 million in funding to 60 community organisations to cover the costs of providing services and programmes.<\/p>\n

He stressed \u201can awful lot of work\u201d was being done to \u201cfacilitate women in availing of supervised temporary release\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Irish Prison Service<\/a> is running a pilot project in Limerick women\u2019s prison to support the needs of women who are transitioning from prison to the community. More than 50 women have accessed the scheme to date, \u201cwith approximately 25 successful completions\u201d. <\/p>\n

Raising the issue of prisoner numbers in the D\u00e1il last week, Gannon said the GNIB \u201cis showing up at overcrowded prisons to place people into them without any consultation with the prison guards\u201d. <\/p>\n

The Dublin Central TD said: \u201cThat is extraordinary and it is happening on the Minister\u2019s watch.\u201d <\/p>\n

An extra 26 spaces for the D\u00f3chas Centre \u201cwill not fix this\u201d, he said, adding: \u201cWe need something far more radical and different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister told him he recognised the pressures the deportations issue put on the prison system. \u201cPerhaps we need a separate place where people who are going to be subject to enforced deportation can be detained. That is something I will look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Social Democrats spokesman referenced \u201cjaw-dropping\u201d comments by the Inspector of Prisons, who recently told the Justice Committee conditions in the prison system were \u201ctantamount to torture\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recidivism rates in Ireland are nearly seven out of 10. Asking if it was \u201ctime to be more radical\u201d, Gannon called for a \u201cfull exploration of the prison system\u201d and suggested a citizens\u2019 assembly on prisons and incarceration.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish prison conditions among the worst \u2018anywhere\u2019, chief inspector tells politiciansOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He asked: \u201cDo we really need to imprison women whose children will have to visit them and be traumatised by that prospect?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister rejected the suggestion prison conditions were \u201ctantamount to torture\u201d. He said there was a \u201ca lot of excellent work going on in prisons and a lot of people who come out of prison do not go on to offend again\u201d, adding: \u201cThat is particularly the case in respect of serious offences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minister said he was well aware of people in prison who \u201cbecause of addiction issues or chaotic lives, do go on to commit further offences\u201d, which was a challenge to deal with.<\/p>\n

There are about 5,800 people in prison from a population of 5.5 million, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not a society that is at the higher echelons of incarceration in Europe or in the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a moderate view in terms of who needs to be incarcerated,\u201d but \u201cjustice sometimes requires incarceration\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A detention centre specifically for people facing deportation may be considered, after it emerged the Garda National Immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[123380,42,11183,18573,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-371115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-garda-national-immigration-bureau","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-irish-prison-service","11":"tag-jim-ocallaghan","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}