Dóchas Centre

Dóchas Centre

Location in Central Dublin
Location	Phibsboro, Dublin
Coordinates	53°21′42.3″N 6°16′2.8″W / 53.361750°N 6.267444°W / 53.361750; -6.267444
Status	Operational
Security class	Medium security
Capacity	105
Opened	1999
Closed	Operational
Managed by	Irish Prison Service
Governor	Kathleen McMahon (outgoing)

The Dóchas Centre (Irish: lárionad le Dóchas) is a closed, medium security prison, for females aged 18 years and over, located in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. It is also the committal prison for females committed on remand or sentenced from all Courts outside the Munster area of Ireland.

Dóchas is one of two women's prisons in Ireland, the other is located in Limerick Prison. It has a staff of 88 not including teachers, chaplains, probation and welfare, doctors, psychiatrists and counsellors.

Dóchas [ˈd̪ˠoːxəsˠ] is the Irish for hope making the literal name of the prison "Centre for Hope."

Mountjoy Female Prison opened in 1858 and has been the largest female prison in the country ever since. In 1956 the female prison at Mountjoy was given over to young male offenders and became St. Patrick's Institution. The small numbers of women at the time were moved to a basement of one wing of St Patrick's Institution. Female prisoners were detained in the basement until 1990 when they were moved into one wing of St Patrick's Institution. The wing was used for female prisoners until 1999 when women moved into the Dóchas Centre. A campus style female prison within Mountjoy Prison, Dóchas was designed for twice the number of female prisoners that the old wing of St. Patrick's Institution could accommodate.

The ethos of the centre is for inmates to live as close as possible to a life in ordinary accommodation. The prison operates with inmates expected to behave in the same way as one would manage their own home in relation to cleaning, cooking, laundering etc. The regimes within the centre is on training and development. These activities are structured like a normal working day. Staff are encouraged to wear civilian clothing rather than uniforms.

Prisoners are accommodated in seven separate houses with each house accommodating ten to twelve people except for one called Cedar which can accommodate eighteen women. The pre-release centre called Phoenix accommodates women in private rooms or in self-contained studio apartments. Inmates live in en-suite rooms with keys to their rooms meaning they can move about relatively freely. Houses are locked at 7.30pm with all the women in the prison being locked into their rooms at that time except for women in Cedar and Phoenix Houses. Houses and rooms are unlocked at 7.30am. Prisoners organise their own breakfasts in the kitchens of the houses and eat lunch with prison staff in the dining room with an evening meal being served in the dining room at 5pm. Each house has a kitchen/dining room with sitting room facility which contains a television and reading material.