Reduced jail sentences and more community service should be introduced by the next government, taxpayer-funded NGO The Irish Penal Reform Trust has said.
The NGO, which campaigns for rights in the penal system and Irish penal reform, said in December that it was calling for the incoming government to focus on a “humane” approach to addressing pressures in the criminal justice system. It was responding to the annual Irish Prison Service Report for 2023, released just before Christmas.
In 2023, the overall committals to prisons in Ireland increased, the report said. There were 7,938 committals to prisons; which was a 12.7 per cent increase in overall committals in 2022. 6,495 people were committed to prisons; which was a 11.9 per cent increase on the previous year. 78 per cent of sentence committals were for one year or less.
There was an increase of 733 or 15.1 per cent in the total sentenced during 2023 from 4,855 in 2022 to 5,588 in 2023. Of the 5,588 who were sentenced,847 individuals were committed in a previous year and subsequently convicted in 2023. Persons detained under immigration laws also rose; In 2023, there were 127 committals in respect of immigration issues involving 119 detainees, an 8.6 per cent increase.
The overall daily average number of prisoners in custody in 2023 was 4,582 compared to 4,122 in 2022, an increase of 11.2 per cent (+460). Meanwhile, the daily average number of female offenders in custody increased in 2023 to 214, a 23.7 per cent (+41) increase on the 2022 average of 173. There was also a 10.6 per cent (+419) increase in the daily average number of male offenders in custody, from 3,949 in 2022 to 4,368 in 2023.
In response to the findings of the report, the NGO, which has received almost €1.5 million from the Department of Justice, the Department of Rural and Community Development and the IHREC, said the new government faced an immense task to tackle both chronic and acute problems in prisons and in the criminal justice system more widely. It pointed to the increase in people serving short sentences, and said the report highlighted the “ever-increasing pressures” faced by the system with an 11 per cent increase in the daily number of people in custody from the year before.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail over the weekend, the head of the IPRT, Saoirse Brady, said shorter jail terms should be introduced as a “no brainer.”
She argued that such an approach would cut costs, pointing to how it costs the State €85,000 to put someone in prison for a year (whilst a probation order or supervision in the community costs 10 per cent of that).
She also said such a move would help address prison overcrowding at a time when jails are overcrowded. However, opponents, including those in government, have pushed back against the move – saying there must be sanctions for those who commit crimes.
However, Ms Brady of the Irish Penal Reform Trust said: “It’s still a sentence. It’s not a soft option. They still have a criminal record which will follow them for a significant period of time, sometimes for the rest of their lives, affecting them accessing things like employment and accommodation.”
She also said proposals to build a new ‘super prison’ with a capacity for 2,200 inmates was not the answer.
“The focus is all on small-scale detention. We’re going completely against that. You can clearly see big institutions don’t work to rehabilitate and support people within them.
“What does that do for the almost 300 people currently sleeping on the floor of a prison cell? It does nothing to alleviate that.”
She instead called for the millions that would go into building a new prison to be invested in community services that would support people “and divert them from the criminal justice system.” Ms Brady said that those who are sentenced to serve 12 months or less should instead serve time in the community, pointing out that such sentences tend to be handed down for less serious or non-violent crimes.
The NGO said: “Notably, since the end of 2023 we’ve continued to break new prison overcrowding records – with safe capacity levels breached daily. Any new government needs to shift its thinking to deliver what is needed immediately rather than continuing with the endless refrain of building more prison spaces as if that will be a silver bullet.
“These spaces are years in the making. Yet officials right across the criminal justice sector have already identified tangible short-term solutions in the Prison Overcrowding Response Group’s final report which sets out practical measures that could quickly take the pressure off and provide the IPS with some much-needed breathing space.”
A Prison Overcrowding Response Group, composed of officials from across the Department of Justice and representatives from the Irish PrisonService, the Probation Service, the Courts Service, and An Garda Síochána, was established in July 2023.
However, Thornton Hall in North County Dublin, which had been marked as the site for the new ‘super prison’ has since been used for asylum seeker accommodation, further stalling the proposal to tackle prison overcrowding. Up to 1,000 asylum seekers are to be housed at the controversial site, the Department of Integration previously confirmed.