Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 April 2023
61. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Justice to address the issue of prison overcrowding; if he is satisfied to have sufficient medium and long-term prison capacity to deal with the increase in the population and any other factors which would lead to an increase in demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18114/23]
View answer89. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Justice if he has engaged with Governors of individual prisons on substituting short-term sentencing of four months or less to community service or another alternatives. [18113/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 61 and 89 together.
I can assure the Deputy that the Prison Service and I are committed to providing safe and secure custody for all people committed to prison and officials in my Department and in the Irish Prison Service continuously work together to identify short, medium and longer term proposals to help manage capacity issues in our prisons as they arise.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Prison Service must accept all prisoners committed by the Courts and as such the Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time, and the prison system is, of course, subject to peaks and troughs.
Where the number of prisoners exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, the Prison Service make every effort to deal with this through a combination of inter-prison transfers and structured temporary release.
My Department works very closely with the Irish Prison Service to ensure a safe working environment for staff and to ensure the safety and security of those in the custody of the Prison Service. The Government has already, and will continue to, provide significant capital funding to the Irish Prison Service to enhance the existing prison infrastructure.
The commissioning of new male and female prison accommodation in Limerick Prison will provide an additional 90 male spaces and 22 additional female cell spaces. The new male accommodation is now partially open and the female accommodation is expected to become operational later this year. In addition, the refurbishment of the training unit in Mountjoy last year provided an additional 96 spaces.
The need to ensure the continued availability of modern prison facilities with adequate capacity will continue to be central to the work of the Irish Prison Service and will be core to the development of the new Irish Prison Service Capital Plan.
Alongside this, my Department is progressing a range of policy options to ensure that the courts have a suitably wide range of appropriate options for dealing with people who have committed minor offences.
The Programme for Government contains a broad range of policies and proposals that represent a coherent approach to enhancing and sustaining a more just and safe society, with a specific commitment to review policy options for prison and penal reform. In respect of delivering on this commitment, the Government approved the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024 in August 2022.
This review seeks to find the balance between ensuring that people who commit serious crimes receive a punishment and a period of incarceration proportionate to that crime, while at the same time acknowledging that sometimes community-based sanctions are more appropriate in diverting offenders away from future criminal activity and that they have a role to play in addressing criminality, reducing reoffending and providing protection to the public, while holding the individual accountable.
In this regard, the Deputy will also be aware that my Department has commenced a policy review of the Criminal Justice (Community Sanctions) Bill 2014. As part of this policy review, due consideration is being given to facilitating the effective and efficient use of community sanctions by the courts, and to ensuring the courts have a range of appropriate options for dealing with people who have committed minor offences. Consideration of this matter is ongoing.
That said, I am sure that the Deputy appreciates that sentencing is a matter solely within the discretion of the trial judge, having regard to the circumstances of the case and of the accused and subject to any limits as may be prescribed by law for a particular offence. The role of the Oireachtas is to set the appropriate maximum sentence for a particular offence. There are also a number of presumptive minimum sentences established in law, and these are currently subject to a review which is required under the Judicial Council Act 2019.
The intention of the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform is to strengthen the options available to judges when they are considering cases, to facilitate the effective and efficient use of community sanctions by the courts, and to ensure that the courts have a wide range of appropriate options for dealing with those who have committed minor offences and who might otherwise receive a sentence of 12 months or less.
The Deputy will also be aware that the relationship between substance misuse and offending behaviour is well understood and that a history of substance misuse is a strong predictor for reoffending.
In this regard, the final report and recommendations of the High Level Task Force to consider the mental health and addiction challenges of those who come into contact with the criminal justice sector was published by Minister McEntee and the Minister for Health in September 2022.
The recommendations made by the Task Force aim to ensure better support for people at the earliest point at which they come into contact with the criminal justice system. They seek to divert people away from the criminal justice system where possible, while supporting them in their rehabilitation from addiction and in the recovery and management of their illness. Further, when justice requires that a prison sentence be imposed on an individual, the recommendations of the Task Force seek to address the question of better rehabilitative support while in custody and to put in place the right structures to ensure the progress made in prison is not lost after release.
