Vol. 494 No. 4
384 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the recent issue of the Bar Review which referred to conditions in our prisons; the plans, if any, he has to improve our prison regime and to employ means other than custodial sentences to punish people found guilty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18303/98]
I wish to inform the Deputy that I am fully committed to the development of community sanctions and measures as alternatives to custody in cases where the court decides that a sentence of imprisonment is not appropriate. There are a number of alternatives to custody already in place. On average, on a daily basis, there are approximately 4,400 offenders serving community-based sanctions under the supervision of the probation and welfare service.
One alternative to custody is community service. In 1997, over 1,100 offenders were required to perform community service by the courts. The Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act, 1983, has been in operation since 5 December, 1984. It provides criminal courts with this additional sanction which they may apply in appropriate cases, namely, where a person is convicted of an offence for which the court considers that the appropriate penalty would be a custodial sentence — excluding offences where the penalty is fixed by law, such as murder. A more recent development in the area of alternatives to imprisonment is intensive probation supervision. This is a special community based programme for serious or persistent offenders requiring a more intensive form of supervision. Participants on supervision orders from the courts may be referred to this scheme in place of a substantial custodial sentence — two years or more.
It is my Department's policy to develop probation as a viable alternative to imprisonment and towards this end funding is provided to over 40 hostels, day-centres and workshops in various parts of the country. These projects are operated by a number of voluntary, community and business groups in association with the probation and welfare service and are working to intervene with young people at risk of offending and to reduce re-offending among those who already are involved with criminal behaviour and on supervision to the service. The financial assistance available to these bodies in 1997 was £4.2 million. The 1998 budget allocation is £5.06 million — for current plus capital costs. I wish to inform the Deputy that in relation to prisons that the current prison building programme, new prisons and major refurbishments of existing prisons, will provide the most appropriate modern facilities for prisons and staff.
