‘State failing to expand prison alternatives’

SUCCESSIVE governments have failed to expand alternatives to prison, according to an official report.

The report, by the Health Research Board, said numerous studies over the past 20 years, including government-sponsored research, advocated the use of alternatives to prison.

Author Johnny Connolly said there was also broad public support, documented in surveys, for such measures.

“Despite the overwhelming political and public consensus that alternatives to prison should be used where possible, there is no evidence that their use is displacing the use of imprisonment in Ireland,” said Mr Connolly.

Writing a paper in the current issue of Administration, he said Ireland seemed to be criminalising more offenders.

“Indeed, rather than witnessing a decline in the use of imprisonment and a corresponding increase in non-custodial sanctions, we are possibly seeing an overall increase in the number of people falling under the supervision of the criminal justice system as a whole,” said Mr Connolly.

He said plans to bring in anti-social behaviour orders would “in all likelihood widen further the net of the criminal justice system”.

He said there appeared to be “an absence of sufficient political and judicial will” to maximise the use of alternatives to imprisonment.

His research focused on the use of alternatives in the context of drug using offenders.

He said unpublished data from the National Drug Treatment Reporting System showed that since 1998 there had been no noticeable increase in the numbers of people referred to treatment from the criminal justice system relative to the total numbers referred to treatment.

He said the number of people under supervision in the community and the number of people in prison on a daily basis had both increased by 50% between 1995 and 2002.

Mr Connolly said that research indicated that 63% of male prisoners and 83% of female prisoners had used drugs in the past year.

The report recommended more information be made available to judges as to what alternatives are available.