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This week, TheJournal.ie’s regular columnist Lisa McInerney says rehabilitation and dignity for prisoners isn’t an issue for bleeding heart lefties: it’s for our own protection when they get out.
An America fugitive who carried out one of the most high-profile and brazen hijackings in US history has been discovered living in a idyllic Portugese hamlet – 30 years after he absconded.
As figures reveal that more than 540 people were jailed last year for defaulting on fines, a Journal.ie reader reveals that she was told by a garda that if she went to prison for not paying a fine she’d be out that afternoon and could spend the money in the shops.
In today’s Fix: Getting convicts into the community, to target or not to target Gaddafi, the preservation of civil servants’ privilege days and one man’s transfixing video of the ground beneath his feet.
OVER 10% MORE people went to jail last year than in 2008, according to the latest report from the Irish Prison Service (IPS). A total of 15,425 people went to prison in 2009, an increase of 13.8%.
There was a huge increase in the numbers imprisoned for failing to pay court-ordered fines through 2009 – over 90% up on 2008 to 4,806.
The daily average number of people in custody increased by 8.5% (337 prisoners) and most prisons operated at or above full capacity.
Last week, a report from the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IRPT) criticised the government’s plan to break the new Thornton Hall facility into three construction stages. The group said the new plan would mean prison overcrowding would continue, and new capacity would be filled.
Responding to the prison service’s report, the IRPT said that the prison crisis “is now completely out of control” and the number of prisoners is not only increasing, but that increase is accelerating.
LINDSAY LOHAN has been freed from a Los Angeles jail after serving only 13 days of a 90 day sentence. The 24 year old was freed at 1.35am (local times) on Monday morning and immediately checked into the UCLA medical centre.
Lohan got into an unmarked van, with only her lawyer, Shaun Chapman Holley and a representative from the medical centre.
Radaronline is reporting that Lohan’s mother Dina and her sister Ali met Lohan before she was released. “‘I was finally able to hug my daughter after two long weeks of speaking to her from behind a glass wall.
“Lindsay is doing well, and is appreciative of the hundreds of well-wishers she has received.
“She is with the utmost professionals and is in very good hands.” her mother said.
The UCLA medical centre, is the same centre where Britney Spears was held in 2008.
At the centre Lohan will be monitored at all times for the remained of her sentence. Lohan was jailed last month for violating a 2007 conviction for driving under the influence.
TODAY MARKS 70 years since Ireland officially became a republic.
At midnight on 18 April 1949, Ireland officially left the British Commonwealth and became a Republic.
But while a number of countries around the world celebrate the anniversaries on which they gained independence or became a republic, Ireland doesn’t do either.
Leo Varadkar has previously raised the possibility of having a Republic Day, while it’s also been suggested that the day would not even need to be a public holiday.
So today we’re asking: Should Ireland mark the anniversary of the day when it became a Republic?
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