Ms Saoirse Brady:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the committee for the invitation to speak here today on this important issue. The IPRT last presented to the previous committee in 2021 and, unfortunately, many of the same issues remain.

For those who do not know us, the Irish Penal Reform Trust is Ireland’s principal non-governmental organisation working for systemic penal reform. Our vision is a just, humane Ireland where prison is used as a last resort. Our mission is to advocate for a progressive criminal justice system that prioritises alternatives to prison, upholds human rights and champions reintegration. We do this through research, campaigning and changing attitudes. As Senator Flynn mentioned, according to the last census, Travellers make up less than 1% of the overall population yet are severely over-represented in the prison system in particular.

On the statistics the Senator mentioned, those statistics come from August 2024 but we do know that at other times, women, for example, in Dóchas, have made up to 25% of people in prison, or of women in prison, I should say. When we think of the two women's prisons in particular, they are the most severely and regularly overcrowded in the State, I would say.

Something I would like to pick up on is that the Traveller community is also over-represented in probation statistics. In 2022, Irish Travellers of all genders comprised an estimated 9% of those engaged with the Probation Service. As was mentioned, while young Travellers are over-represented in Oberstown Children Detention Campus, there is only one mention of them in the current youth justice strategy, and that is certainly not enough.

While we welcome the introduction of an ethnic identifier to support the State in building out ethnic equality monitoring, we do not feel that data is always complete, and it is not routinely and regularly published. We have statistics for the Irish Prison Service published every single day, so we would like to see that ethnic data being published more regularly, and we should not have to ask for it as advocates. We would ask the Irish Prison Service, IPS, and the Probation Service to collate and regularly disseminate and publish that up-to-date, accurate statistical information on ethnicity, and that would include data on people held in pre-trial detention - currently, one in five people out of the general prison population is held in pre-trial detention - looking at who is serving a custodial sentence and who is engaging with the Probation Service.

The last time we appeared before the previous committee, we were about to publish a piece of research. In 2022, we published it and it is called “Sometimes I’m Missing the Words”: The Rights, Needs and Experiences of Foreign National and Minority Ethnic Groups in the Irish Penal System. The research was funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. It was completed by researchers in Maynooth and included a focus on the experience of Irish Travellers. It looked at it in the context of policy and law at national and international level.

Again, the report raised the issue of accurate and incomplete data. It carried out an analysis of IPS committals for a 12-month period but it found that no ethnic data was recorded for more than 22% of committals. With those gaps and discrepancies and without the full analysis, we do not have the full picture of who was actually in the prison system, and not everybody self-identifies either. We need to find a way to ensure we have all the data available to us.

The research also examined why certain groups were over-represented in the criminal justice system, and I know that is something the committee wants to discuss today. It highlighted a number of underlying factors that have a particular impact on ethnic minorities, and I do not think they would be a surprise to anybody: low educational attainment, homelessness, unemployment and racism, including anti-Traveller prejudice. Another key finding was that experiences of racism at different stages of the criminal justice process had the effect of limiting trust with any part of the penal system.

If we want to ensure accountability in the prison system and help to restore confidence in the penal system overall, we urge the Department of Justice to complete, and prioritise the completion of, the ongoing review of the Prison Rules 2007. Those rules touch on almost all aspects of prison life, from admission right through to health and education. The review also provides an opportunity to insert a positive obligation to eliminate discrimination and ensure the rules comply with the public sector duty set out in section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.

Along with the review, part of that was to allow for a streamlined and robust complaints system, and for the Office of the Ombudsman to take jurisdiction of prisoner complaints. If we want to address racism across the prison estate and promote a positive prison culture, and we have an opportunity to do that as well in the forthcoming Irish Prison Service Bill 2023, there must be a functioning complaints system that people have faith in, which can hold the prison authorities to account and which can provide proper redress when things go wrong. The research I mentioned found that “the current complaints system is ineffective in addressing complaints concerning racism” in particular. A robust complaints system in which staff and prisoners have confidence would support better management of prisons and result in better outcomes for everyone. This is especially relevant in a context where we have record levels of overcrowding across the prison estate. In June, for the first time ever, we hit the 5,000 mark in prisons, and that is not a record any of us wanted to break. It places huge pressure on prison staff and it puts even more pressure on necessary but already overstretched services and resources, like mental health and addiction services in particular.

While the changes I have mentioned would benefit everybody in the prison system, the IPRT believes there should be a dedicated strategy for Travellers in the criminal justice system overall. They face specific challenges, and those are not addressed in current policy or strategy. It needs to look at issues such as being over-represented in the criminal justice system but also the stigma experienced and the high level of need within the community in terms of mental health, addiction, literacy, low educational attainment and other relevant issues that particularly impact Travellers. We urge the committee to support that call.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Traveller Justice Initiative have jointly written to the Office of the Inspector of Prisons to ask for a thematic inspection focused on Irish Travellers in prison. We would also like to have one on ethnic minorities more widely but specifically on Irish Travellers. We think this would help to shed some light on the lived experience of Travellers in prison and could be used to better inform policy and service delivery. I am happy to answer any questions following the opening statements.