POA ConferenceElectronic tagging of criminals may soon be introduced as an alternative to custodial sentences to free up prison spaces, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell has said.
Speaking to the annual conference of the Prison Officers' Association in Ennis, the Minister said electronic tagging of offenders in other jurisdictions was so advanced it could now be properly evaluated. He had recently spoken to the head of the UK probation services about their tagging system and was assured of its value. "I think it can be a useful means of having a non-custodial sentence for a first-time offender. We're talking about people like public order offenders.
"Instead of sending a young man who behaves in a drunk and disorderly fashion into a custodial sentence, which will have a very significant life-altering effect on that young person, he could be tagged to allow him to go out and work during the day, but monitor them when they should be remaining at a particular place or at home at night."
Tagging systems may be provided and operated here by the private sector, as is the case in the UK. However, State agencies, such as the probation services, would respond if criminals broke the conditions of their tagging.
Mr McDowell also said he would favour the greater use of non-custodial sentences, particularly for first-time offenders. He would like to see judges imposing a financial penalty and a suspended sentence.
This could remain suspended for a set period to allow the offender time to reform. If these punishments were used more often, it would take pressure off the prison system which is "silting up" with greater numbers of inmates serving life, more remand prisoners and more non-nationals, many of whom are detained on immigration matters.
Spike Island in Cork and the Curragh Place of Detention in Kildare would re-open if overtime talks at the Labour Relations Commission concluded satisfactorily.
The Minister also said that mandatory drug testing would be introduced into Irish prisons. Inmates who tested positive would have their visits supervised more closely; they could be moved to an isolation wing and could even have their sentence extended. He said some offenders were entering prison drug free only to develop drug dependency while inside.
"That is exactly the opposite of what the prison service is trying to do," Mr McDowell said.
"There is a considerable hard drug presence in some of our institutions. Without mandatory testing it is difficult to assess the extent of the problem. It is a catastrophe for Irish society if drugs are present to any significant extent in our prisons. A prisoner who is not treated for drugs and got off drugs, who is allowed to sustain the habit while in prison, has no real option but to go out into the street on release and commit further crime to pay the debts they incurred in prison, and to sustain that lifestyle which nobody has altered.
"There's nothing humane about running a prison with drugs in it," Mr McDowell said.
POA president Mr Gabriel Keavney said his members would welcome any measures which would reduce the level of drugs in Irish prisons. Drugs were rife in the prison system and because prison officers would be on the frontline implementing any new policies they should be consulted before the tests are introduced.
"The fact of the matter is that we all know there are drugs in prisons, yet an inmate has never appeared before any court to face charges of possession".
The Mountjoy Prison governor, Mr John Lonergan, told The Irish Times mandatory testing would only work as part of a wider approach to drug abuse by inmates. "There is no one single answer to addiction," he said.