Ms Maria Joyce:

Research done by the University of Limerick that was published just a few months ago showed that the culture of policing and the criminal justice system in this country is discriminatory in terms of the racism experienced by Travellers. For Travellers, racism in policing and racial profiling all lead to greater numbers in prison, just like every other ethnic minority across the world is over-represented in prison systems. Also, much of that, in the context of women, is short sentences. They are imprisoned for fines. We have legislation in this country that prohibits judges from giving custodial sentences for fines.