The number of people sent to prison for failing to pay fines rose by 10% last year.

This is an artist’s impression of what the new multi-million euro H Block-shaped Cork prison will look like when opened in 2015.

The country’s most infamous prisoner, Malcolm MacArthur, is a free man after serving 30 years for the violent murder of a nurse in Phoenix Park.

A chief executive whose resignation from the Police Ombudsman‘s office led to serious concerns about its independence has been appointed to head the Policing Board.

HAVING a job on release from prison would be the most likely factor to prevent reoffending, according to young offenders.

Criminal hearings may experience delays because of staff shortages at the Probation and Welfare Service, it was revealed today.

SEX offenders will be assessed and possibly monitored on an all-Ireland basis by the end of 2009, according to Minister for Children Barry Andrews.

A 16-year-old has been remanded on bail pending sentence after he was found guilty of attacking a woman from his neighbourhood with an inflatable baseball bat.

A Polish man who was caught looking at child pornography in an internet cafe, leading to the discovery of more than 1,000 images in his home, has had his sentence adjourned for six months to allow further interaction with the Probation Services.

Two reformed drug addicts who sold heroin to undercover gardaí six times have been given suspended jail terms after Judge Katherine Delahunt accepted that they had both turned their lives around.

A homeless and pregnant woman who was born in Mountjoy Prison has been given a suspended sentence a for stabbing a Polish man in Pearse street Garda station.

DECLAN was heavily involved in the drugs trade.

A youth, who took cocaine then burgled a woman’s home and attacked her boyfriend, escaped a criminal conviction today and was let off with a warning.

Two teenage brothers, who got arrested after a brawl broke out at a wedding reception, have been released on supervisory probation by Judge Ann Ryan at the Dublin Children’s Court.

The son of crime boss John Gilligan yesterday escaped a prison sentence after he was fined €1,100 for possessing €1,000 worth of cocaine.

Rapper Foxy Brown has been indicted on charges that she smacked a neighbour with a mobile phone, a Probation Department lawyer said today.

A then 17-year-old youth who "held cannabis and cocaine valued almost €32,000 for someone" and had a list of names with amounts of up to €5,000 marked against them has escaped with a suspended sentence.

WITH the country’s prisons jammed with criminals, the proposal for a restorative justice programme as an alternative to putting people behind bars is sure to attract broad political and public support.

DEPARTMENT of Environment spending will barely keep pace with inflation next year - and the opposition has warned that more stealth taxes could be introduced to cover gaps in funding.

A man who caused severe injuries to two elderly pensioners while trying to rob their handbags will be sentenced by Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on October 14.

PROBATION Service management has written to the Department of Justice telling it that only 17 of the 100 posts earmarked for decentralisation can feasibly be transferred.

PROBATION and welfare officers, already struggling to cope, are to have their budget cut by a further 8% next year, the Oireachtas heard yesterday.