The Government should implement proposed alternatives to prison sentences, Opposition spokesmen, judges and prison officers agreed yesterday.
The Fine Gael and Labour Party spokesmen on justice, Mr Jim Higgins and Mr Brendan Howlin, were joined by the Prison Officers' Association and members of the judiciary in supporting the report of the expert group on the Probation and Welfare Service.
The report calls for a radical departure from present policy, including directing offenders towards counselling rather than prison, and sending remand prisoners to "bail hostels".
Mr Higgins said it was clear the Government should have accepted his recent Bill designed to provide an alternative to custodial sentences for fine defaulters.
"My enactment of the Court Orders Bill would have made it possible for courts to make an attachment order to a person's earnings or welfare, to enforce fines, thus avoiding sending fine defaulters to prison.
"It is ironic that the Minister's own expert group has now suggested that such an alternative be sought," he said.
Mr Higgins said the cost of prison places, which runs at £52,000 for each place annually, highlighted the importance of this is sue being addressed immediately.
The State's annual prison population was in the region of 10,000, he said, but the permanent population was just 2,500 prisoners. This, he maintained, was another clear indicator that many of the non-permanent prison population did not need to be in jail at all.
While acknowledging that the former Fine Gael minister, Mrs Nora Owen, had provided 840 prison places, Mr Higgins said the significance of the report was that it showed there was no need for the full number of 1,200 places promised by the present Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.
Calling for the proposals of the expert group to be implemented "without any further deliberation", Mr Higgins maintained that "with 70 per cent of prisoners reoffending it is clear that alternatives should be looked at".
Mr Tom Hoare, of the POA, also welcomed the report, saying his association had consistently advocated alternatives to custodial sentencing being available to the courts.
"This was also recommended by the National Crime Forum. We support the idea that the prison is a secure area and should be used for prisoners who need to be kept in source areas. This can be done by having options in the courts."
However, Mr Hoare said it was "a popular misconception" that custodial sentences were imposed on first offenders. "Custodial sentences are usually imposed only after all other options," he added.
On the RTE lunchtime news yesterday, Judge Sean Delap said that any alternative to the prison system would be welcome to the courts. The courts had made use of the community service order system - while also imposing an equivalent amount of prison time if the community service order was not complied with - which was one working alternative, he said.
Judge Delap agreed with Mr Hoare that, in general, first-time offenders such as shop-lifters would not receive custodial sentences.
However, he qualified this remark by adding that "professional" shop-lifters had been dealt with by custodial sentences.
Judge Delap especially welcomed the recommendation that probation reports be provided on all offenders aged under 21.
The Labour spokesman, Mr Howlin, said the Minister's approach to the crime issue was "fixated on prisons".
Many more options needed to be available to the courts, Mr Howlin said. "As it stands, only a small section of criminals need to be there [in prison]; the rest are petty criminals, who are simply honing their skills.
"We need to break the cycle of criminality and we need a much more sophisticated response, with a whole range of options available to the courts."
