Vol. 470 No. 1
36 Mr. O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Justice the number of prisoners granted temporary release from Irish prisons in 1995 and to date in 1996; the plans, if any she has to restrict or terminate this practice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18402/96]
The number of individuals granted varying periods of short-term temporary release has averaged about 4,000 a year for the last five years. In 1993, the latest year for which accurate figures are available, the number was 4,212. In that year, 3,564 individuals were granted full temporary release.
I must stress that one cannot simply add these two figures together to arrice at a total number of individuals who obtained some from of temporary release in that year as there would be a significant overlap of individuals between the two groups. For example, a prisoner may have received a day's temporary release to attend a funeral and subsequently been given full temporary release later in the year. This prisoner would be counted in both sets of figures. Figures are not kept in such a way as to readily given the exact extent of this overlap.
Exact figures for 1995 and 1996 are not yet available. However, indications are that the number of full temporary releases granted is now about 4,000 per year and approximately 4,500 individuals would be granted varying periods of short-term temporary release in the course of any one year. Again, there would be a significant overlap of individuals between these two groups. I will, of course, be happy to let the Deputy have the exact information for 1995 and 1996 as it becomes available.
I have no plans to terminate this practice. The granting to temporary or early release — called parole in other jurisdictions — is a feature of persons systems internationally and has been operated under statute in this country since 1960 by successive Ministers for Justice. I have outlined the positive reasons for the system in the past, as have my predecessors.
However, I have acknowledged that some early released do arise due to shortage of prison accommodation. This has been the case for several years. It would be wrong to suggest that this was the sole reason for early releases generally or, indeed, to imply that serious offenders are being released simply because of accommodation problems and without reference to other criteria.
The problem of releases to cope with accommodation pressures will be addressed by the provision of additional accommodation announced by me in January and July of this year as part of a major package of measures to combat crime. The provision of 640 new spaces over the next 18 months, including 400 spaces for remand prisoners at Cloverhill, beside the existing place of detention at Wheatfield, will greatly ease the pressure on accommodation, especially in the committal prisons. These new spaces, combined with other additional accommodation announced by me in February of this year, will mean an increase in available accommodation by the end of 1998 of approximately 880 spaces. This represents a 40 per cent increase in accommodation.
I also announced that I had obtained Cabinet approval for a new scheme involving intensive supervision initially of 100 prisoners on early release. Furthermore, I got Government approval for the recruitment of ten additional probation and welfare officers to enable this scheme to be put into effect.
In relation to temporary release concessions generally, I should explain that before granting temporary release, careful consideration is given to a number of factors, including the nature and seriousness of the offence. As I said before, the overriding concern when decisions are being made in individual cases, is the safety of the public. While great care is taken in selecting individuals for release, I am not aware of any system which can guarantee that no individual will commit offences during the period of release. The very regrettable reality is that some offenders will tend to re-offend irrespective of whether they are released early or serve every day of their sentence. The fact that some, despite the most careful selection, will tend to betray the trust placed in them, does not provide a basis for denying the possibility of release concessions to all offenders.
Will the Minister accept that the prison system is in chaos in the light of recent remarks by a judge to the effect that he would not impose a custodial sentence on a person convicted of burglary even though he should have because of the fact that the individual would be on the streets laughing at the system in a short space of time? Would the Minister be generous enough to acknowledge that she should never have deferred or cancelled the prisons at Castlerea and Mountjoy as they might have been close to completion today and that the revolving door prison policy, on which the Minister has provided an excellent historical review, has become an open door policy since she took office?
As a solicitor, the Deputy will be aware that, no more than anybody else, I as Minister for Justice cannot comment on what a judge does or does not say in the course of dealing with a case in our courts. I do not accept that our prison system is in chaos. However, I accept that we do not have enough prison places. If there is chaos, it was in existence a long time before I took up office.
The proposals I am now putting in place will begin to tackle the shortage of places in our prisons. I gave figures for 1993 because they are accurate and I gave a ballpark figure for 1995 and 1996. It is clear that it was not in 1995 or 1996 that we began to have an early or temporary release programme in place.
At the risk of lecturing the Deputy, the Government's decision to postpone the building of the Castlerea programme to enable me to examine the entire prison system and make proposals has resulted in the fact that later this month the Department will take possession of the first 25 places in Castlerea and 68 places in the Curragh in November. The Deputy is aware that the decision I inherited from the previous Government was that a prison would be provided in a former hospital in Castlerea. However, the patients in the hospital did not move until August this year.
This position would be the same if this or the previous Government was in office because alternative accommodation for the patients was not available. It is untrue that this prison building programme would have been nearly completed at this stage. I have repeatedly made this point to the Deputy and perhaps he hopes that by repeating it some people in the media who do not follow these issues might pick it up. However, the Deputy is incorrect and the prison would not have been built now if the proposal I inherited had been pursued.
Seventeen of the 20 minutes available for Priority Questions have been exhausted on the first two questions. I must call the third priority question now or it may not be possible to call it.
