It is also the committal prison for females committed on remand or sentenced from all Courts outside the Munster area of Ireland.

The small numbers of women at the time were moved to a basement of one wing of St Patrick's Institution.

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 pre-release centre called Phoenix accommodates women in private rooms or in self-contained studio apartments.

These include:- hairdressing, beauty therapy and photography as well as FETAC programmes and Leaving and Junior Cert courses.

[3] Although the prison is designated to accommodate females over 18 years of age, there has been cases of juveniles being remanded to the centre.

[3] In August 2008, pictures taken on a mobile phone appeared in the media of Scissor sisters killers, Charlotte Mulhall holding a knife to a male inmate's throat.

Labour Party justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte asked "How is it that a prisoner convicted of a particularly gruesome murder was apparently in possession of what appears to be a potentially lethal knife?

[10] The resignation was as a result of a failure by the Department of Justice to consult her about putting in bunk beds to hold more prisoners.

[3] In one case an inmate who was granted early release was arrested after trying to break in by scaling the gate of the prison to return to the centre.