Castlerea Prison


Castlerea Prison is a closed, medium security facility in Castlerea, County Roscommon. It houses male prisoners from 17 years of age or more. It has a bed capacity of 351 and in 2009 its daily average number of resident inmates was 306.

History

Castlerea was established as part of the system of district mental hospitals in 1939. Operating intermittently as a tuberculosis sanitorium, it continued to function as a hospital until 1994 when it was closed. It was renamed St. Patrick's Hospital during the 1960s. From 1996 it opened as a prison accepting a small intake of inmates that year. Construction work on the main cell blocks of the prison was completed in 1998.