Ms Anne Costello:

Good afternoon everybody. We thank Vice Chairman, Deputy Eamon Ó Cúiv, and members of the committee for giving us the opportunity to address them today on the issue of the over-representation of Travellers in prison and the work of the Travellers in Prison Initiative, TPI. The TPI is a St Stephen’s Green Trust, SSGT, programme and it is funded by SSGT, the Irish Prison Service, IPS, and the Probation Service. Its overall aim is to embed changes in policy and practice that have a positive influence on Travellers in prison, their families and communities.

I will begin with a short slide presentation, giving the committee a brief overview of the extent of the over-representation of Travellers and other ethnic minority groups in prison and to give an explanation for that. As the committee will be aware, Travellers in Ireland represent less than 1% of the total population, but they account for 10% of the prison population. Traveller women make up, at least, 15% of all women in prison.

As can be seen from the first slide, this over-representation is not unique to Ireland or to Travellers. Minority and indigenous groups the world are over-represented in prison. As can be seen from the slide, in New Zealand the Maori people account for 13% of the population, but over half the prison population. Likewise, for Australia, Canada and the other countries. For women from these groups, the picture is even more stark. Again, in New Zealand, Maori women make up 13% of the general population, but 56% of the prison population. Likewise in the other countries.

Why is this case? We went through some international research to try to find the common causes for this. As can be seen from the slide, these include the effects of colonisation and forced assimilation, the legacy of stripping indigenous people of their land, culture, language, laws and customs, the disruption of culture and traditions and denial of their identity.

The question then is how this relates to Travellers. I am sure this committee knows well how that relates to Travellers. The first instance is the 1963 Report of the Commission on Itinerancy, in which there is talk of the problem of "the presence ... of itinerants in considerable numbers" and "social problems inherent in their way of life’, and the plan discussed where "itinerants as a class would disappear" within a generation and there would be a "final solution" to the problem.

Since then, many laws and policies have been introduced which have had a negative impact on Travellers' way of life and on their legitimate ways to make a living. It was not until 2017 that the Government formally recognised Travellers as an ethnic minority.

Other areas the research identified were poverty and exclusion, high levels of unemployment, poor housing, educational disadvantage, poor health and mental health problems. This committee again knows well how that impacts on Travellers. They are just some of the statistics for Travellers with regard to unemployment and health. Suicide is seven times the average for the general population, etc.

The next area the research looked at was discrimination and oppression. Like minority indigenous groups in other countries, they had experience of discrimination in accessing goods and services, were described in the media as criminals, experienced a justice system with conscious and unconscious racism and suffered effects of oppression. That includes addiction, the use of alcohol and other drugs.

Again, how does this relate to Travellers? We are well aware of the discrimination Travellers experience in accessing services. Anybody on social media is well aware of the levels of hate speech when the issue of Travellers comes up. In a positive or negative context, there are always negative comments. In an internal Garda survey, not a single front-line garda had a positive attitude on Travellers. Similar to the other minority indigenous groups, the early onset of drugs and problematic drug use is linked to the trauma and oppression in their lives.

The final area I am looking at is around women. The research shows that they have faced particular issues. They suffer even more than men in prison and before imprisonment, they have issues with housing, poverty, mental health and trauma. We did some research with Traveller women in prison and they all faced those issues. I will not go into much detail on that here because Ms Joyce, my colleague, is going to talk more on the issue of Traveller women in prison.

I am not condoning crime in any form. I fully acknowledge the hurt and damage it causes across society. We all know that crime-free societies will benefit everybody. If we are really serious about trying to create safer societies, however, we must address the injustices that are often the root causes of crime. My presentation today gave a very fast overview of some of these injustices.

Even from a purely economic perspective, imprisonment is a very expensive way to try to reduce crime. At our recent conference, for example, President Higgins spoke about the injustice of cuts to Traveller education during the last recession; cuts that have not been reinstated and that have hugely negative impacts on Travellers' participation and outcomes in education. It is not rocket science to realise that it would be more cost-effective for the State to invest in addressing educational disadvantage and other causes rather than imprisonment. It is clear that the justice system alone cannot address this issue but it can play a really important part in improving outcomes for Travellers in prison and reducing the likelihood of them reoffending.

I will provide an outline of some recommendations for positive change. At our recent conference, Traveller men who had been in prison spoke about the issues they experienced in prison and the changes needed. They spoke about the common use of racist language in prison and the hurt and damage it causes them. They asked the Irish Prison Service, IPS, to send a message from the top down that there will be zero tolerance of that language and that there will be consequences for prisoners and staff who continue to use it.

They spoke of the power of Travellers working in prisons as positive role models, that is, Travellers who are peer support workers and who are in delivering training and peer mediation, Travellers who are mediators and the Traveller Counselling Service. That is beginning to happen in prison. They have asked that the IPS facilitate more Traveller role models to work in all the prisons.

They talked about the need for training workshops in all prisons where Travellers can learn practical skills to earn a living when they leave prison. They shared their own positive experiences of education in prison, which was often their first positive experience of education, but they also spoke of the need to encourage other Travellers to access education. They explained that many Travellers are reluctant because of their negative experience of school and the shame associated with that.

They spoke about protection. They highlighted the need to explain to new committals that protection is not necessarily a safe place and can be a hostile and isolating place, and they should avoid going there unless it is absolutely necessary. One Traveller man gave an example of how he had taken on that role of speaking to new committals in Castlerea Prison. They talked about punishment and stopping visits and telephone calls as a punishment for prisoners and explained how that also punishes innocent children. They discussed the need for special arrangements for prisoners with larger than average families to maintain contact with their families.

Finally, they gave positive examples of how trauma-informed therapies helped them to turn their lives around. I have circulated very short recordings of the men speaking about those issue. I am happy to discuss any of that this morning.

I will conclude with some priorities for the Travellers in Prison Initiative, the first of which is around ethnic equality monitoring. We have begun the journey of gathering accurate data about Travellers in the criminal justice system and I acknowledge the commitment of the IPS, the Probation Service and the Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities, IASIO, to engage in this process.

I thank Pavee Point for its support in developing and delivering the training to staff who will be collecting the data. It is really important that staff asking the question about ethnicity are trained to explain the purpose of the question. Gathering accurate information is not an end in itself, however. The agencies here today and the TPI must work together to try to scrutinise the data and come up with workable solutions to understand and address any negative outcomes for Travellers compared to the general population that the data reports.

Our second area is around services in prison and probation. Again, the agencies here today will talk about how they have tried to adapt their services to ensure that Travellers can avail of the full benefits of their services. We welcome this but we seek a commitment to resource this work across all prison sites and in the Probation Service, for example, the development of guidelines on pre-sentence reports for Travellers.

Our third priority is around peer support. Travellers spoke about the impact it has when their peers work with them. We are delighted that the IPS has mainstreamed peer support in four prisons and peer mediation training has been delivered in five prisons by the Traveller Mediation Service. We need the support of the IPS to roll out peer support initiatives in all prisons, however, and to ensure that the Traveller Counselling Service will be resourced to ensure that it is more widely available to all Travellers in prison.

The final issue is around women in the criminal justice system. I am delighted that Ms Joyce, who will speak further on that issue, is here with me today.

I will conclude by saying that the criminal justice system is only part of the solution but it still has an incredibly important role to play in stopping the revolving door of the imprisonment of Travellers. We really appreciate the opportunity to raise the issues today and look forward to the ongoing co-operation of all the agencies and legislators present.