Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Although I have not been in the prison in Cork, I understand the new prison will be a huge improvement on what is there. It is hard to imagine that a good boy like me has been in four prisons in my time. The new prison in Cork should be designed to accommodate fewer prisoners and to provide for single-cell occupancy. I tabled an amendment proposing that "prisoners shall normally be accommodated during the night in individual cells", but it has been ruled out of order for one reason or another.

I find some of the statistics that have been issued by the Irish Penal Reform Trust a bit frightening. who are sent to prison. I do not think it offers any serious educational value. Most of kids I know in Wexford who went to prison came out of it a lot worse than they were when they went in. Something must be wrong. The trust also stated: "The prison population has increased by 400% since 1970." I do not think things have improved in that time. The trust has reported that "The majority of Irish prisoners have never sat a State exam and over half left school before the age of 15" This tells us that most of the prison population come from seriously deprived backgrounds. It costs a great deal of money to keep people in prison. If we used some joined-up thinking, we might consider why so many kids run into trouble at an early stage and why so many people from poorer backgrounds end up in prison. We have to fight the causes of their behaviour, rather than hitting them with a sledgehammer and throwing them behind bars. According to the trust, "t". That does not include the educational spend. It is amazing that such an incredible amount of money is being spent without having any remedial effect. The policy of spending so much money is not working. The trust has also reported that f

Irish Penal Reform Trust has pointed out that the wasteful practice of imprisoning people for fine defaults costs the State over €2 million a year in court, Garda and Prison Service resources. The number of people being sent to jail for non-payment of fines has surged to more than 7,400. Is it a good idea to send people to jail for not paying fines? Is there a better way of doing this? Has the State considered alternatives? Have we exhausted the potential for making greater use of community service? Now that the Revenue has more powers than at any time in the history of the State - we recall the new laws that were introduced with regard to the household tax - one would imagine it has ways of addressing the problem of people not complying with the obligation to do community service. Most Deputies will agree that it makes more sense for young people and people of all ages to do community service rather than spending useless time in prison at a huge cost to the taxpayer. We need to put a bit more thought into how community service can work better. It is a no-brainer that community service makes more sense in these cases. It is better for individuals because it is more educational, it is a form of exercise and it leads to a certain sense of fulfilment. A feel-good factor is associated with it. God knows it would save the State a fortune.

According to the Irish Penal Reform Trust, "[t]here was an increase of 10% in committals for non-payment of court ordered fines in 2012." The figures are increasing. I keep thinking we will develop a more enlightened approach to these matters, but we are actually going backwards. The Irish Penal Reform Trust stated: "Over 70% of prisoners are unemployed on committal and a similar percentage self-report as not having any particular trade or occupation." This statistic bears out my contention that many of these people come from an unfair position in the first place. The world is not fair. It is not a level playing field. The manner in which we penalise such people for coming from a disadvantaged position does not stack up. The trust has also reported that "[t]here were 3,495 sentenced committals for road traffic offences in 2011". I presume judges and others from the higher echelons of our society were not involved in these cases. They probably got them terminated in advance.

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