Demand to cut prison numbers by a third

Cross-party proposals to cut prison numbers by a third over 10 years could save the country millions in the long term.

The Oireachtas justice committee is calling for around 1,400 inmates to be taken out of the prison system and given community sanctions or placed on early release schemes.

Launching the report of its sub-committee on penal reform, rapporteur Ivana Bacik said a “critical question” was whether their study would “gather dust” in the Department of Justice — the fate of many reports over the decades.

Howeverm the Labour senator said their report came at a time when Justice Minister Alan Shatter had announced a strategic review of penal policy.

The report, backed unanimously by the Oireachtas justice committee, makes five recommendations:

*A Government strategy to cut prison numbers by one third over 10 years (the number currently stands at 4,300);

*All sentences under six months for non-violent offences should be commuted and replaced with community service orders;

*Remission (time off a sentence) should be increased from one quarter to one third for all sentences over a month in length, with an enhanced remission of one half for those who engage in rehabilitation;

*Legislate for a structured release system, including temporary release and parole;

*Overcrowding and prison conditions must be improved to allow for rehabilitation.

While the committee did not provide costings for their proposals, the report highlighted that it cost around €70,000 a year to house a prisoner.

In contrast, a community service order for around a three-month period costs in the region of €2,400.

However, some informed sources said it was difficult to accurately estimate the likely savings from moving 1,000 inmates from prisons, as not all would transfer to community orders. In addition, while prison staff numbers and prison costs would fall, it was to difficult to quantify by how much.

Despite this, conservative estimates suggest millions of euro could be saved in the long term, mainly as a result of not having to build new prison spaces, in addition to reductions in staff and other costs. British estimates suggest the annual cost of community sanctions was around a quarter of that of imprisonment.

Ms Bacik said they were not proposing any exemptions to remission, meaning it would also apply to cases of manslaughter, sexual offences, aggravated burglaries, and serious assaults.

Advic, the advocacy group for families of homicide victims, strongly opposed extending remission in manslaughter cases.

Spokesman John O’Keeffe said mandatory minimum sentences were critical in achieving justice for families.

“Remission already undermines this and increasing it to a third of a sentence is a farce... and is a disservice to the families of victims, who are the ones left with the real life sentence,” he said.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust welcomed the report.

*www.oireachtas.ie.

Finland file

*The committee hailed the Finnish penal system as a model for Ireland.

Senator Ivana Bacik said that, similar to Ireland, Finland saw a massive jump in prison numbers, increasing from 2,800 in 1999 to about 4,000 in 2005.

Finland has a population of 5.4m, comparable to Ireland.

The report said that, after government strategy changed in Finland, the average daily prison population declined from 4,000 to 3,000.

This decline was achieved through a reduction in the use of prison for fine-defaulters, extension of parole, supervision programmes and electronic monitoring. The report said they also merged the prison and probation services into a Criminal Sanctions Agency under the Ministry of Justice.

The study said the recidivism rate in Finland was now about 35%, while studies here have recorded a rate about 50%.

Ms Bacik said a third of all prisons in Finland were open institutions, compared to just 5% here.

Fine Gael TD David Stanton said the Finnish model was “very impressive”.