Jail is not the solution for failure to pay fines

THE news that 540 people were jailed for minor fines last year is simply shocking.

It hearkens back to Dickensian times and their own debtors’ prisons.

Also the cost of the prisoner upkeep defies logic especially in these troubled times.

The solution though is simple. Every person in this state either pays tax or gets welfare benefits, the organs of the State to administer this being the Revenue or the Department of Social Welfare.

Where a taxpayer fails to pay a fine on time, deduct the amount from their credits for the year.

Where the social welfare recipient fails to pay, deduct from their benefits over the year. In both cases, charge interest too.

For extreme and severe cases let MABS work out something with the state on the debtor’s behalf.

Fines get paid, prisons have more capacity, and all are possibly “revenue neutral”. Is the solution perhaps too simple?

Frank Hannon

Shandon Street

Cork