Justice
Capital investment in justice will aim to protect the public and reduce offending, but the closure of smaller court houses is also on the way.
Justice was included in the Executive’s investment plans after it was devolved to the Assembly on 12 April 2010. Capital investment in the sector covers a wide range of work from prisons to ‘designing out’ crime in public spaces and neighbourhoods e.g. ensuring well-lit areas with fewer hiding places. In keeping with the Minister’s emphasis on ‘working in partnership’, several of the new facilities will also be used by staff from voluntary and community organisations.
Planned investment totals £675 million i.e. £290 million for 2011-2015 and a further £385 million for 2015-2021.
As expected, the £139 million Desertcreat joint training college near Cookstown is the priority project. Serving the Police Service, Fire Service and Prison Service, its construction will start in 2013 and the college is due to open in 2015.
£54 million has been allocated to the prison estate over the next four years, with a focus on facilities that help to reduce re-offending, including the modernisation of Maghaberry prison (high security) and potential new accommodation for female prisoners. £12 million will improve the Forensic Science Agency’s infrastructure.
A court estate strategy will aim to develop a “modern, fit-for-purpose” estate for courts and tribunals and further work on this area is under way, which is likely to result in the closures of smaller court houses.
The Courts and Tribunals Service currently has 21 court houses and those in Magherafelt, Strabane, Larne, Limavady and Bangor are most at risk of closure. A “comprehensive assessment of needs and opportunities” will take place to consider where investment should take place in the rest of the system.
Magilligan prison, opened in 1972 as a temporary camp for paramilitary inmates, is due to be closed in 2018 and the Justice Minister’s announcement will therefore need to be taken into account in the final strategy. A replacement medium security jail is to be built closer to Belfast.
The UK Government’s £200 million package to tackle dissident republican terrorism was announced in 2011 and runs to 2015. The decision to ring-fence the PSNI’s budget, partly due to the severe threat, is resulting in cuts in the budgets for the Compensation Agency, the Prison Service and the Public Prosecution Service. The Minister has also protected the resource budgets for youth justice and probation, which reflects the importance of his plans to tackle re-offending through more community sentences.
Planned investment in justice will take place against a backdrop of a historically high crime rate, which is slightly falling year on year. Overall crime in Northern Ireland rose rapidly after the ceasefires, from 67,886 reported offences in 1994 to 142,496 in 2002-2003 but has fallen for four consecutive years to reach 103,389 offences in 2012-2013.
