Castlerea Prison is a closed, medium security facility in Castlerea

Castlerea

Castlerea is located in the west of County Roscommon, Ireland. It is the second largest town in the county with a population of 3,055 . Roughly translated from Irish, Castlerea can mean Brindled Castle or King's Castle...

, Co. Roscommon

Roscommon

Roscommon is the county town of County Roscommon in Ireland. Its population at the 2006 census stood at 5,017 . The town is located near the junctions of the N60, N61 and N63 roads.-History:...

. It houses male prisoners of 17 years of age and more. It has 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 prison accepting a small intake of inmates that year. Construction work on the main cell blocks of the prison was completed in 1998.