Debate contribution: Prison Service: Pressures

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 24 February 2025.

MLA: Mrs Naomi Long
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 24 February 2025
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Heading: Prison Service: Pressures
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4813834

Text

I thank the Member for his question. Each prison establishment is distinct. Hydebank Wood is the smallest such establishment in Northern Ireland. Despite its size, it comes with its own complexity from housing young male and female prisoners on a single site. Although the young male population there has remained relatively stable, the young female population has increased from 70 to 113 between February 2022 and February 2025. Magilligan is an adult male prison that primarily holds sentenced prisoners as they progress towards release. Its prisoner population is being managed carefully in order to sustain it at as close to its capacity of 500 prisoners as possible. The reason for the careful population management is to alleviate the ongoing pressure on the prison. Maghaberry is the largest and most complex prison in Northern Ireland. It is a high-security prison for sentenced and unsentenced adult male prisoners in integrated and separated conditions. Since February 2022, the population of Maghaberry prison has increased by 25%, to 1,270. Nearly half of the prisoners held there — 632 — are on remand.

178 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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