Green Party attacks FF over ‘low crime levels’

THE opposition normally uses crime figures to berate the Government, but in an unusual step, the Green Party yesterday said crime levels were too low to justify the amount of people in prison.

While Fine Gael and Labour have consistently attacked the Government’s record on crime — the former launching a billboard campaign yesterday claiming murder, rape and gun offences had all increased — the Greens chose a different tack.

It instead criticised the Government for incarcerating too many people, saying the amount of prisoners was out of proportion to the level of crime.

Party justice spokesman Ciaran Cuffe said it was “time to consider alternatives to custody.”

Launching the party’s policy document on crime and justice, he said the prison system was in crisis, with overcrowding, high rates of recidivism and a lack of rehabilitation.

The policy document stated: “Our prison population has increased by over 30% between 1997 and 2002, a rate which far exceeds our EU counterparts, despite the fact that the recorded level of crime has dropped significantly in the same period.”

The document added that the rush to incarcerate more people could be explained by “the politicisation of the issue of crime, disproportionate media coverage and subsequent moral panic.”

Mr Cuffe said: “We must recognise that prison is not the appropriate punishment for every crime. Countries including Finland, Germany and Canada have made conscious decisions to reduce prison populations through the implementation of a programme of suspended sentencing, fines and community service as an alternative to custody.”

In particular, the Greens said they would immediately end the detention of persons on immigration-related matters if elected to government.

The party also pledged to reopen the Curragh prison to help ease overcrowding, but said it would abolish plans to build a new “super prison” on a greenfield site in Thornton Hall, north county Dublin.