The second young offender who escaped from Oberstown detention centre last week has been returned.
Two inmates escaped from the Dublin facility last Monday, while a third was caught before he could leave.
The breakout occurred after several inmates took control of a staff office. Pat Bergin, the director of the facility, was among three staff members who sustained minor injuries during the incident. The two inmates escaped after using an angle grinder to cut through the perimeter fence. Management confirmed yesterday that a second boy has now been returned to the centre. The other boy was returned on Wednesday.
“We want to extend our thanks to the gardaí for all of their work in the safe return of both young people and to all of our staff team at Oberstown in dealing with this,” the centre said.
“We were immediately confronted with the unpredictable nature of work at the campus. We are committed to our efforts to improve.” The centre added that it had not had any major incidents for seven months until the breakout on May 30. “This is progress, it will continue.”
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Last week Mr Bergin launched a plan for the future of the centre, which he said would enable it to better deal with such incidents. “Our ambition is to ensure that Oberstown achieves the highest level of safe care,” he said.
Oberstown became the country’s sole youth detention centre last year and since then it has attracted criticism. Five inmates escaped last summer before being caught, a fire broke out, an industrial dispute emerged and it was revealed that large numbers of staff were suing over work-related injuries.
A review of safety at the facility commissioned last September recently recommended that the use of drugs by inmates be tackled and the smoking area moved from its place at the main gate as it was showing inmates the exit route.
Capacity at the centre is 48 and there are currently 29 inmates.