Prison Service

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Questions (1027)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

Question:

1027. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Justice the average custodial sentence length for those committed to prison under sentence in 2022, broken down by gender; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18159/23]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Justice

I requested information from the Irish Prison Service to reply to the Deputy but unfortunately it was not possible to collate the information in the time allowed. I will respond directly to the Deputy once this information is collated.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51.

I refer to Parliamentary Question No. 1027 for written reply on 17 April 2023, requesting the average length of custodial sentence for those committed to serve a custodial sentence in 2022, broken down by gender; and if he will make a statement on the matter. As you will recall, the information you requested was not readily available at that time and an undertaking was given to respond to you as soon as possible with the relevant information. Please find a response to your questions provided below.

I wish to inform the Deputy that as those sentenced to life in prison do not have a definitive sentence length they have been excluded from this response.

In 2022 there were 4,838 people committed to prison under a definitive sentence.

This includes 681 people who were on remand/trial at the start of the year and were subsequently sentenced. The average custodial length of these people was 455 days, or 1 to <2 years.

Number of Sentence Committals* in 2022, by Gender and sentence length.

Sentence Length	Female	Male	Total
<3 Mths	149	845	994
3 to <6 Mths	157	1177	1334
6 to <12 Mths	123	800	923
1 to <2 *Yrs	40	444	484
2 to <3 *Yrs	24	410	434
3 to <5 *Yrs	8	404	412
5 to <10 *Yrs	6	207	213
10+ *Yrs	1	43	44
Total	508	4,330	4,838

*This includes people who were committed in a previous year but sentenced in 2022

I trust this is of assistance.