Jailing fine defaulters is a waste of money

IMPOSING a fine on someone reflects the fact that the courts regards their offence as one that does not justify a custodial sentence, so it seems daft that almost 9,000 people were sent to prison, however briefly, because they did not pay fines last year.

This figure marks a 10% increase on the number of people jailed in those circumstances in the previous year.

As if to add another layer of the bizarre to the figures, the number of committals has jumped by over a third since the Fines Act 2010 was made law.

That act intended that defaulters would be jailed only in the “most exceptional circumstances”, but technical and legal issues to allow the deduction of fines from income has stymied implementation.

Fine defaulters represent more than half of all committals to jail and are a huge burden on prison administration, especially as offenders rarely spend more than a few hours in custody.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust has blamed the Courts Service for not taking advantage of the new legislation but Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has promised that the system will be operational before Christmas.

Let us hope so because the current arrangements are a gross waste of resources and demean our justice system.

It also raises a bigger question — why does it take an arm of our public service so very long to make changes that our parliament has agreed?

And why are there no consequences?