Vol. 415 No. 3
23 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Justice if any investigations have been carried out into successful alternative programmes of rehabilitation for offenders in other EC countries, particularly in relation to petty offenders, in the light of the continued severe overcrowding in the Irish prison system; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
There is a wide range of alternatives to custody in operation in this country, including fines, probation, compensation orders, deferment of sentence, suspended sentence and community service orders. The use of supervised alternative sanctions has been growing steadily in recent years to the point at which there are at present over 3,200 offenders serving community-based sanctions under the supervision of the Probation and Welfare Service. That is about one and a half times the number of persons who are in custody. For example, over 700 offenders are on community service orders and the number of such orders made by the courts has increased from 698 in 1985 to 1,349 at 30 November 1991.
I wholeheartedly endorse and encourage the use of alternatives to custody in appropriate cases and I have increased the staffing and resources of the Probation and Welfare Service so as to enable more offenders to be catered for by way of community-based supervision rather than imprisonment. I have no doubt but that the public interest is best served when a range of effective alternatives to custody are employed to the full and prisons are used only as a last resort. In this regard I would point out — and this is something that is not always generally recognised — that when persons are committed to custody for relatively less serious offences it is very often the case that they would already have had alternative sanctions imposed on them for previous offences but have persisted with offending.
As far as experience with the use of alternatives in other European countries is concerned, my Department have close contacts through the Council of Europe and otherwise with European prison administrations and take account of all useful developments in this field. Regular attendance at conferences and seminars, participation in expert groups and visits from time to time to observe and study non-custodial sanctions in other countries have assisted in the development of programmes here and we ourselves have shared the benefits of our experience with others. Ireland will later this year host the General Assembly of the European Probation Conference, which is indicative of our involvement in and commitment to international exchanges of information and experience on these matters.
Would the Minister accept that despite the very welcome development in recent times that he has outlined Ireland still has one of the highest rates in the EC of people in custody, and what further mechanisms would he envisage employing to give restitution to the victims of crime rather than simply having a punitive system that punishes the offender?
I have taken initiatives in relation to support for victims of crime. I have increased the amount of money available to the Victims Support Group. I have tried to assist victims by making available a room in the Four Courts for victims of crime before they have to face the court. I have been involved in ensuring that in the construction of all new centres or the extension of existing court houses there will be a place available for the victims of crime to meet in a more relaxed atmosphere before going into a court room. The Deputy can be assured that as far as possible every alternative to imprisonment will be expanded and extra resources are being made available to the Probation and Welfare Service, as I have already outlined.
