The 16-year-old girl sentenced for the murder of chip shop-owner Franco Sacco will be sent to Mountjoy Women's Prison after a month in a Department of Education-run reformatory for girls in north Co Dublin.
The Department of Justice said yesterday the girl will be transferred to Mountjoy Women's Prison wing on July 21st to serve the remainder of her sentence among some 70 women prisoners, about three-quarters of whom are heroin addicts.
The girl has been taken to Oberstown Centre for Girls in Lusk, where there is room for 16 girls who are all on an education programme.
Oberstown is beside Oberstown Boys' Centre and Trinity House, which are both detention centres for boys. They all have an ethos of care and education for youths up to 16.
The programme in the girls' centre is designed for 10- to 16-yearolds and is not regarded as suitable for older teenagers.
A Department of Justice spokesman said yesterday discussions would take place about where the girl would be sent when she reached 17, the age at which the criminal justice system determines a person has reached maturity and can be sent to prison.
In the girl's case this will mean a transfer to the two floors of Mountjoy Prison that currently constitute the Women's Prison.
This unit has long been judged unsuitable for holding women, and a new women's prison is being built in the grounds of Mountjoy and should be open later this year.
The present wing houses remand and sentenced prisoners. Women inmates of all ages and serving varying sentences mix in the wing. Only a small number are sentenced for murder or other violent crimes; most are imprisoned for stealing to raise money for heroin.
The provisions for women prisoners were criticised yesterday by the Probation and Welfare Service branch of IMPACT, which called for more adequate accommodation for women prisoners.
Their spokesman, Mr Patrick O'Dea, said: "The programme in Oberstown House is a model we would respect. It has care and education programmes which would not be appropriate for her. Having her would broaden out the age and offence category of the centre.
"Mountjoy is certainly not an appropriate alternative. There are addicts and non-addicts, sentenced and remand, young and adult prisoners all intermingled."
Mr O'Dea said there was a need for an inter-Departmental committee to examine appropriate forms of custody for prisoners like the girl.