Census of Restricted Regime Prisoners January & April 2018

27th April 2018

The Irish Prison Service Statistics Office has published their Census of Restricted Regimes for January 2018 and April 2018. These reports contain information on the number of prisoners on a restricted regime, meaning that their out-of-cell time is restricted to five hours or less per day.

In January 2018, 481 prisoners were on a restricted regime. 445 prisoners were on a restricted regime for protection reasons (Rule 63). Of these prisoners, 438 were on protection at their own request. In addition, 77 prisoners were on a 22-hour restricted regime while 8 prisoners were on a 23-hour restricted regime. This means that the number of prisoners on 22 and 23-hour restricted regimes has increased by 844% (76 prisoners) since October 2017. However, due to an error in the recording of out-of-cell time in Mountjoy Prison, the Governor could not definitively state whether 60 prisoners had received more than 2 hours out-of-cell time. These 60 prisoners are included in the 77 prisoners listed on 22-hour restricted regimes and in the total number of prisoners on restricted regimes. Therefore, a comparison to previous census figures (October 2017) is not advised.

The key statistics from the census for January 2018 are below, but caution is advised when interpreting the figures due to the error mentioned above:

• 481 prisoners in total were subject to a restricted regime
• 445 prisoners (11.9% of the prison population) were restricted for protection reasons (Rule 63). Of these prisoners, 438 were there of their own request
• 29 prisoners were restricted on grounds of order (Rule 62)
• 0 prisoners were restricted due to discipline (Rule 67, Part 3 Prisons Act 2007).

In April 2018, 514 prisoners were on a restricted regime. Of this, 8 prisoners were on a 22-hour restricted regime while 4 prisoners were on a 23-hour restricted regime. An accurate comparison with January 2018 figures is not advised due to the error in the collection of data in January. 

The key statistics from the census for April 2018 are:

• 514 prisoners in total were subject to a restricted regime.
• 487 prisoners (12% of the prison population) were restricted for protection reasons (Rule 63). Of these prisoners, 475 were there of their own request.
• 20 prisoners were restricted on grounds of order (Rule 62).
• 0 prisoners were restricted due to discipline (Rule 67, Part 3 Prisons Act 2007).

Read the full Census of Restricted Regimes for January 2018 and April 2018 here.