Report urges greater investment in community sanctions over expanding prison capacity

Department of Justice report says community sanctions offer better outcomes than more prison spending. File picture

The State should be "slow" to spend more on prisons because investment in community sanctions provides better outcomes, according to a Department of Justice review.

The Government has committed to spend almost €500m over the next five years to build 1,500 new prison spaces.

The investment comes in response to a worsening overcrowding crisis in the prison system, with around 5,900 prisoners accommodated in facilities designed for a maximum of about 4,700 people.

A department review of key legislation relating to community sanctions has recommended a range of measures that could reduce the number of court-ordered jail terms.

These include:

• A new "hierarchy" of sentences and orders, similar to the system used in New Zealand;
• Increasing community service hours under a Probation Supervision Order from 30 to 100, expanding the range of community sanctions available to the courts as an alternative to prison;
• Introducing new restorative justice options, including "Victim Mediation" and a "Reparation Panel", which would bring together the victim, offender, probation officer, garda, community representative and offender case worker;
• An enabling provision to allow for future "problem-solving" courts, such as a Mental Health Court or a Domestic Violence Court.

Community sanctions 

The proposed problem-solving courts would be based on the existing Drug Court in Dublin and follow a recommendation by the High Level Task Force on Mental Health and Addiction, which published its report in June 2023.

The Working Group Review of the Criminal Justice (Community Sanctions) Bill 2014 will now be considered by senior Department of Justice officials to inform the drafting of an updated General Scheme to modernise the community sanctions available to the courts.

The report said the review followed the Review of Policy Options and Penal Reform 2022–2024, which was approved by the Government in August 2022.

That strategy recommended a "sparing approach" to imprisonment, reserving prison for the most serious offences or for offenders who cannot be managed safely in the community.

Prison overcrowding 

In August 2022, the prison population stood at almost 4,200, with capacity for nearly 4,480 people. As of last Thursday, the prison population had risen to 5,837, while capacity stood at 4,767 places.

The report said that, because of the continuing increase in the prison population, resulting overcrowding and the significant number of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on cell floors, the Government had agreed to invest €490m in expanding prison capacity.

However, the report stated: "There are evident economic savings in using community sanctions compared to the cost of incarceration in this country. We should therefore be slow to spend more on incarceration when investment of resources elsewhere provides greater outcomes."

It said very short prison sentences were of "particular concern".

The report found that property crime accounted for the largest proportion of custodial sentences and said the consistent use of non-custodial sanctions for those offences would have a "significant impact".

It added that, for very short prison sentences of less than three months, the most common offences were public order offences, while road traffic offences accounted for the largest proportion of sentences of between three and six months.