The Government intends to end the detention of under-18s in adult prisons within two years following decades of criticism from human rights and penal reform campaigners.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald announced today that capital funding of €50 million has been secured to build a replacement facility for St Patrick’s Institution by 2015.
The institution, which admits 16- to 21-year-olds, has drawn repeated criticism since the mid-1980s, when a State committee recommended closing down the facility on the grounds that it was not possible to rehabilitate young people.
There are currently 44 young people aged between 16 and 17 imprisoned at St Patrick’s who are considered children in the eyes of the law.
A new child-specific detention facility will be built near Lusk in north Co Dublin on a campus that currently houses two child-detention schools.
Ms Fitzgerald said the measures will allow for a “new and innovative response” to the needs of teens who end in trouble with the law.
The new facility was first announced by the previous government in 2008, but the plans were stalled due to pressure on public finances.
Revised plans for a 30-bed replacement unit are significantly smaller and will draw on spare capacity in the current child-detention facilities at Lusk.
In the meantime, all newly remanded or sentenced 16 year olds will be detained at Oberstown, north Co Dublin, from the beginning of next month.
“The path from St Patrick’s Institution to Mountjoy Prison has been too well worn over the years. We must interrupt the predictable path of violence and crime,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
“This development will allow us to place these young people in a secure environment that will offer them a second chance to be productive people who contribute to society.”
The move was welcomed today by children’s rights campaigners such as Fr Peter McVerry and the children’s charity Barnardos.
