Judge calls for rethink to deal with petty crime

THE Inspector of Prisons has called for a new courts system — one aimed at addressing the causes of offending — as a way of dealing with low-level criminality.

Judge Michael Reilly said despite a 44% jump in the number of people being jailed in the last two years society was not any safer.

He said prisons were overcrowded, with poor conditions in many. He said there were high levels of mental illness and drug use and high levels of reoffending by inmates on release.