Government ignores the fact its purpose is to serve the public

MORE than a quarter of Irish prisoners are back in jail within a year of release, and a majority are back in jail within four years, according to a study of 19,995 inmates undertaken over a four-year period up to 2004.

It was conducted by the UCD Institute of Criminology. The recidivism rate would seem to suggest that whatever about a deterrent, prison is not much good at reforming people.

We have been closing our mental hospitals and putting people in jail instead. The incidences of serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, recorded in a study of Irish prisons in 2005 was twice the rate in similar studies in international prisons. Another study concluded that 60% of female and 35% of male prisoners suffer from mental illness. Rather than helping or hospitalising those people, we are jailing them.