The new prison intended to replace Mountjoy Prison at Thornton Hall in north County Dublin will house at least 1,200 inmates when it opens in 2010 but will be designed to allow for its easy extension in the future, new tender documents for the project reveal.
The prison complex will also have its own courthouse linked to other courthouses around the country by state-of-the-art video conferencing facilities.
Firms interested in tendering have been instructed to submit designs for a complex with a range of security levels for inmates, including semi-open facilities.
Those tendering for the new prison, which will replace the existing Mountjoy Prison on Dublin's North Circular Road, will design, build, finance and maintain the new facility. The maintenance contract will run for up to 35 years.
The new prison will include very significant facilities for visitors and legal representatives. It will also contain a medical centre with therapeutic and educational centres for inmates.
The tender documents were published last night by the Irish Prison Service and National Development Finance Agency. The principal components of the public private partnership project include:
Accommodation for at least 1,200 male, female and juvenile inmates.
A range of security levels from semi-open to secure within a secure perimeter.
Facilities for the provision of educational, work training and life skills and medical and therapeutic facilities.
Facilities for staff including recreational and catering.
Administration offices, warehousing and storage.
The new prison will be located on a 150-acre site for which the Department of Justice paid €30 million last year.
At the existing Mountjoy Prison, where about 900 inmates are housed, overcrowding has become a major problem in recent years.
Many of the cells in the male prison have no in-cell sanitation, forcing prisoners to slop out. This practice will stop in the new prison.
Once expressions of interest have been received these will be analysed. More detailed tenders will be invited in the summer with the final contract expected to be awarded early next year. Construction work is due to start in 12 months. The prison is expected to open in 2010.
A spokesman for the prison service said the court and video conferencing facilities would help reduce the need for prisoners to be escorted from prisons to court appearances. Overtime payments associated with this work have proven a major drain on the prison service budget in recent years.
