Number of women sent to prison up 26% since 2010

A record number of females are being sent to jail, accounting for one in six of all committals last year.

Also, chronic overcrowding in the country’s two female prisons means four-out-of-ten inmates are released early.

Official figures show that while male committals have been falling slightly since 2010, the number of women being sentenced to prison has jumped by 26%. The Prison Service report for 2012 shows that 2,151 women were committed to prison last year, compared to 11,709 men, accounting for 16% of the total.

Recent trends show that the number of women jailed has risen from 1,225 in 2008 to 1,701 in 2010. Male committals peaked in 2010 at 12,057, falling since.

Figures on the average daily population in 2012 show:

*Of the 63 women in Limerick female prison, 28 were in custody and 35 (56%) were granted temporary release.

*Of the 198 women in the Dóchas Centre, 124 were in custody and 74 (37%) were given early release.

*The highest rates of temporary release in male prisons were in Cork (34%) and Mountjoy (21%).

*The rate of temporary release for the entire prison system was 15% in 2012, amounting to 777 inmates out of 5,095 prisoners.

Launching the report, Justice Minister Alan Shatter said the large number of prisoners being committed to custody “remains a challenge” with total numbers largely static (17,026 in 2012 and 17,318 in 2011).

The average daily population fell (4,390 to 4,318).

Mr Shatter said the Community Return Scheme — a supervised early-release programme — was successful with a 90% compliance rate among 500 prisoners.

He said the Probation Service managed over 15,000 offenders in 2012.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust said the Prison Service cannot provide safe custody and effective rehabilitation as long as prisoner numbers remained “stubbornly high”. Director Liam Herrick said the legislation on community service orders and the Community Return Scheme were not working quickly enough.

“The Minister for Justice needs to take radical action, such as commuting all sentences of under six months, introducing an amnesty for fines, and increasing standard remission to 33%, with incentivised enhanced remission of 50%,” he said.

Sentencing audit

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has ordered an audit of prison sentencing to unearth why judges are imposing more prison sentences and fewer community sanctions.

Mr Shatter criticised the judiciary last week for jailing too many people for a few months, instead of imposing community service orders in line with legislation he introduced two years ago. The Criminal Justice Act 2011 obliges judges to firstly consider service orders where they are considering sentences of 12 months or less.

But figures show a 10% rise in sentences of three months or less (from 8,070 in 2011 to 8,837 in 2012) and a 6% fall in service orders (from 2,738 to 2,569).

Mr Shatter said there were differences within Ireland as to how judges used community service orders.

— Cormac O’Keeffe