Non-nationals are one third of 2007 prison committals

**Oisín** · 12-19-2008, 12:53 PM

Non-nationals are one third of 2007 prison committals

The average cost of keeping an offender in custody last year was €97,700, according to the Irish Prison Service's annual report.

Almost one-third of the total number of people committed in 2007 were non-nationals, according to the report.

Overall, 6,447 were Irish nationals or 66.4 of the number of people sentenced a decrease of 352 on the corresponding 2006 figure of 6,799.

Other EU nationals (excluding Ireland) accounted for 1,354 or 13.9 per cent of the total number of people committed last year. Asian nationals accounted for 611 or 6.3 per cent of committals while there were 303 Central and South American nationals who were committed to prison in 2007.

A third of all persons committed declared Dublin as their county of residence. Cork (9.5 per cent), Limerick (5.5 per cent) and Galway (3.7 per cent) were the next largest counties of residence indicated.

The report, which was published this morning, indicates that there were 11,934 committals to prison in 2007 covering 9.711 individuals.

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