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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 4 Nov 2003

Vol. 573 No. 3

Written Answers. - Irish Prison Service.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Ceist:

553 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 192 of 9 October 2003, his views on whether there is room to reduce the number of people in prison without jeopardising public security or natural justice, through the increased use of non-custodial measures; and if so, the short-term and long-term measures under consideration by his Department to this end. [24791/03]

The Deputy will appreciate that this matter is one for the courts which are, subject only to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of their judicial functions. It is not open to me to comment on or intervene in any way with the conduct or decision of any individual court case which is a matter entirely for the presiding judge. This is a long-standing principle of our system of justice and it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the type of sanctions being imposed by the courts. While it is much less costly to apply a non-custodial sanction, involving supervision of the offender in a community setting, it has to be borne in mind that non-custodial sanctions are simply not a suitable or adequate way of dealing with many offenders who come before the courts.

Supervision in the community is also used by me as Minister, albeit only in a small number of cases, to have persons released from prison in special circumstances supervised by the probation and welfare service rather than serve out the full term of their sentence. In these cases, the person's motivation to remain crime free and the level of risk he or she poses to the community can enable me to consider him or her suitable for integration into the community under the supervision of the probation and welfare service and strictly on condition that he or she will be returned to prison in the event of non-compliance with the terms of his or her release.

As Minister, within the resources available to me, I have strengthened the probation and welfare service, especially in the area of youth justice, in order to attempt to reduce the need to send young offenders into custodial settings. I would also like to advise the Deputy that the Children Act 2001 introduces a wide range of innovative measures that will provide a statutory framework for the future development of the juvenile justice system in accordance with modern thinking and best international practice. It is the underlying concept of the Children Act to expand the options a court will have at its disposal when deciding on how to deal with a young offender. These options are an essential feature of the Act as they will allow effect to be given to the principle that detention for young offenders will be a last resort. Thus, the Act envisages committals to custody of young offenders being availed of only in situations when other alternative diversions and community based options have been resorted to and have failed. The Act is being implemented on a phased basis. It is expected that the first of the new community sanctions will come on stream in 2004, subject to the availability of resources.
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