Prisons Act, 1933

• Permanent Page URL

Number 51 of 1933.

PRISONS ACT, 1933.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

Number 51 of 1933.

PRISONS ACT, 1933.

AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAW RELATING TO THE CLOSING OF PRISONS AND TO THE USE, CONTROL AND DISPOSAL OF PRISONS WHICH HAVE BEEN CLOSED, AND TO MAKE PROVISION FOR OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE MATTERS AFORESAID. [15th December, 1933.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

Definitions and application.

1.—(1) In this Act—

the expression “the Principal Act” means the General Prisons (Ireland) Act, 1877 ;

the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Justice;

the expression “local authority” means the council of the county or county borough in which is situated the prison in relation to which the expression is used;

the word “prison” means a gaol or prison to which the Prisons (Ireland) Acts, 1826 to 1907, apply and includes any land held or used in conjunction with and for the purposes of any such prison.

(2) This Act shall not apply to the Mountjoy Male Prison, Dublin, nor to the Mountjoy Female Prison, Dublin.

Power of the Minister to close prison.

2.—(1) The Minister may by order (in this Act referred to as a closing order) direct that any particular prison or any specified part of a particular prison shall be closed as on and from a specified date, and may also, if he so thinks fit, by the same order direct that all the estate and interest of the Minister in the whole or any specified portion of the prison or part of a prison so directed to be closed shall, immediately upon such closing or on any specified subsequent date, vest in the local authority.

(2) Whenever the Minister makes a closing order, the prison or part of a prison thereby directed to be closed shall be closed in accordance with such closing order and, if such closing order so directs, shall to the extent and at the time specified in such order be transferred to and become vested in the local authority without any further or other conveyance.

(3) Where the effect of a closing order is such that in consequence thereof there is no building in use as a prison in the county or county borough in which is situate the prison to which such order relates, such order shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling such order is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days after the first day on which such House sits after such order is laid before it, such order shall be annulled accordingly.

Retention of closed prisons by the Minister.

3.—(1) Where a prison or part of a prison is closed by a closing order and is not directed by such order to be wholly transferred to the local authority, the Minister shall retain such prison or part of a prison except so much (if any) thereof as is directed by such order to be transferred to the local authority.

(2) Where a prison or part of a prison is closed by a closing order and is by such order directed to be transferred in whole or in part to the local authority at a future date, the Minister shall retain until such future date such prison or part of a prison or the portion thereof which is the subject of such transfer, as the case may be.

(3) Where a prison or part of a prison was closed under the Principal Act before the passing of this Act but had not at such passing been handed over to the local authority or had at such passing been so handed over in part only, the Minister shall retain (as the case may be) such prison or part of a prison or so much thereof as had not at the passing of this Act been so handed over.

User and disposal of prisons retained by the Minister.

4.—(1) The Minister may do all or any of the following things in relation to a prison or part of a prison retained by him under this Act, that is to say:—

(a) with the consent of the Minister for Finance, use the whole or any portion of such prison or part of a prison for any purpose which the Minister thinks proper;

(b) with the consent of the Minister for Finance, let the whole or any portion of such prison or part of a prison to or permit the same to be used by any person during such time (not exceeding ninety-nine years), for such purposes, and subject to the payment of such (if any) rent or other moneys and the performance of such conditions as the Minister shall in each case, with the consent aforesaid, direct;

(c) by order direct that all the estate and interest of the Minister in the whole or any particular portion of such prison or part of a prison be transferred to the local authority as on and from the date of such order or any later date specified in that behalf therein.

(2) Whenever the Minister makes an order under this section directing that the whole or a portion of a prison or part of a prison be transferred to the local authority, such prison or part of a prison shall, to the extent and at the time specified in such order, be transferred to and become vested in the local authority without any further conveyance.

(3) All moneys received by the Minister as rent or otherwise in respect of a letting of or a permission to use a prison or part of a prison made or granted under this section shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct.

(4) The State Lands Act, 1924 (No. 45 of 1924), shall not apply to a prison or part of a prison retained by the Minister under this Act.

Provisions consequential on the division of a prison.

5.—Every order made under this Act whereby a part only of a prison becomes transferred to and vested in a local authority may contain such provisions as the Minister shall think proper for the apportionment of any rent or other outgoing, the provision of rights of way or other means of access, the erection of dividing partitions or fences, and other matters consequential on the division of such prison.

Validation of certain orders closing prisons.

6.—Every order for the closing of a prison or part of a prison which was made before the passing of this Act and purported to be made under section 30 of the Principal Act and was made in such circumstances that special reasons for such closing ought under the said section to have been stated in such order but were in fact not so stated, shall be and be deemed always to have been as valid and effectual for all purposes as such order would have been if such special reasons had been stated therein.

Retention by Minister of certain disused prisons.

7.—Where a prison or part of a prison was closed under the Principal Act before the passing of this Act but had not at such passing been handed over to the local authority or had at such passing been so handed over in part only, such prison or part of a prison or so much thereof as had not at the passing of this Act been so handed over (as the case may be) shall not be deemed to have been transferred to or become vested in the local authority merely by reason of the same not having been used for any of the purposes specified in section 31 of the Principal Act.

Repeals.

8.—Sections 30 and 31 of the Principal Act are hereby repealed.

Short title and citation.

9.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Prisons Act, 1933.

(2) This Act and the Prisons (Ireland) Acts, 1826 and 1907, may be cited together as the Prisons (Ireland) Acts, 1826 to 1933.