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THE IRISH PENAL Reform Trust says that the government should place an emphasis on improving the substandard conditions experienced in Irish prisons – not on building more of them.
Liam Herrick, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said that prison expansion will not and cannot solve overcrowding, and will not make our communities safer – “it will only serve to increase the prisoner population, putting further financial burden on the taxpayer”.
In response to a parliamentary question, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Alan Shatter, said that despite a prison building programme under the previous government, the number of prisoners in Ireland has doubled in the last 14 years.
He that the situation could have been avoided if action had been taken by the previous government.
As of 20 October 2011, there were 4,275 prisoners in custody and 755 on temporary release.
That means that 15 per cent of the total prisoner population is on temporary release.
Liam Herrick of IPRT said the latest prison numbers represent a drop from a peak of 4,587 in custody in April 2010, “which suggests that recent progressive measures such as the Community Service Order legislation are having some positive impact”.
Herrick added:
However, Ireland’s prisons are still chronically overcrowded and running far above design capacity, particularly in the prisons with the worst physical conditions – Mountjoy and Cork – where hundreds of prisoners have to slop out in shared cells.
He said that any prison building programme should address substandard prison conditions, rather than being used to expand the number of prison places.
Herrick also said that the failure to fully implement the Fines Act 2010 means that “thousands continue to be imprisoned for failure to pay court-ordered fines, putting further pressure on strained prison resources”.
The minister said that too many offenders convicted of minor offences who pose no major risk to the community are presently in the prison system and he is pursuing alternatives to custody.
These include a pilot community service scheme under which offenders in prison who have served a substantial portion of their sentence and who pose no threat to the community are offered earned earlier release in return for community service.
Minister Shatter admitted that the problem of prison overcrowding “remains a challenging issue which unfortunately cannot be resolved overnight”.
He said that there has been an ongoing capital programme with almost 600 additional prisoner spaces constructed and brought into use since January 2008.
There are also ongoing projects, including the construction of a new accommodation block at the Midlands prison, which will provide a potential 300 spaces and should be completed by mid-2012.
An administrative building on the women’s prison Dóchas site in Mountjoy has also just been converted into a new accommodation block which will provide 70 spaces. These will become operational next month.
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It’s a punishment, not a bleedin spa!
I’d say numbers, not conditions that counts at this stage… Was it not last years that average cost per prisoner is at some €70k a year? That’s insane!
They are human beings and must be treated with dignity and respect, no matter what the crime
Well said Johnny.
dignity yes, respect no way
I would have thought that the conditions were too good as it is.
I totally agree Liam
And yet it costs over €70,000 a year to house a prisoner in Ireland. All those who commit a crime that warrants prison should go to prison, not be released into the community because of a lack of places. Communities shouldn’t have to suffer the burden quietly of having individuals who should be locked up walking around causing further misery because there’s not enough prison places.
I think the rights of communities in this respect should be the first thing we look at, improving conditions an (important) second.
The phrase ‘temporary release’ implies that prisoners will have to return to prison, this is not the case, once they are released that’s it…
Build ‘em high, and pack ‘em in !!!!! If a crime involves violence of any discription there should be no temporary/early release. All custodial judgements should be given on Mandatory Sentence basis, kinda like a shopping list….that’ll end the weepy “get outta jail” stories!!!
better off getting the death penalty back would be much cheaper in the long run.
Oddly enough, countries that have the highest levels of recidivism are also the ones with the worst prison conditions and countries with low levels of recidivism treat their prisoners well.
I was just reading this article yesterday – note the bit about Norwegian prisons..
http://www.cracked.com/article_19489_5-terrible-ideas-that-solved-huge-global-problems.html
(I liked the blue lights idea too, I’m not too fond of those orange street lights!)
Read that article yesterday too oddly enough, funny how you can have your mind completely changed by a pisstake website!
Conditions my arm. They’re damn criminals and not refugees
What’s more important, making sure society “gets its own back” on the criminals or increasing the likelihood they won’t re-offend? Which do you think is better for society in the long-run, regardless of the short-term moral deficit?
Keep them slopping out….preferably each others manure!
As a wise man once said, If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime!
have your say