Criminals see prison as mere inconvenience

ALMOST half of all prisoners go back to jail within four years of being released and 75% end up re-offending at some stage. This is proof that the Irish prison system is now operating on a revolving door basis.

The criminal justice system is failing with a quarter of released prisoners back serving a new sentence within a year and, incredibly, almost half of all prisoners destined to return — obviously unreformed and probably unrepentant — within four years of their release. These offenders have made crime a career choice and regard prison as a temporary inconvenience to their illegal activities.

This demands comprehensive action from the Government, yet Justice Minister Brian Lenihan has almost no detailed information about the scale of the problem.

In fact, the minister has confirmed in the Dáil that he has no estimate of the number of prisoners who re-offend without being caught or successfully prosecuted.

Furthermore, we have no statistics in relation to the number of convictions the average prisoner has on his or her record.

It has been suggested that the average Irish prisoner has seven convictions, although the minister is unable to confirm this.

If Mr Lenihan is ever going to deal with the problem of repeat offending, he needs to know how many repeat offences are being committed.

The Government has done almost nothing to stamp out re-offending over the past 10 years.

Prisons are now a training ground where offenders pick up new tips, learn new techniques and, in many cases, continue operating their criminal networks from inside jail.

Instead of using prison as a way of rehabilitating criminals, Government inaction has resulted in a breeding ground for new generations of offenders.

Cllr Tim Lombard

Granig

Minane Bridge

Co Cork