Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I thank all the Senators who spoke. It is a short but important Bill and support therefor is welcome. I join those who praised the Probation Service. A substantial amount of very good work is done by the service, which gets very little public acclaim for it. Last autumn, prior to my coming into government, I had meetings with the head of the Probation Service to explore this issue and to ensure there is capacity within the service to extend the use of community service orders. I was assured there is such capacity.

Some Senators commented on the statistical information I gave regarding the courts. All I can say about this is that it seems some judges are utilising the community service order scheme to a far greater extent than others. At the end of the day, judges have discretion with regard to sentencing. They have a constitutional right to exercise their discretion but the intent of the Bill is to ensure that before any judge considering imposing a sentence of less than 12 months does so, he or she first considers the appropriateness of community service. To consider the appropriateness of community service, it will be necessary to ascertain whether the convicted person is willing to undertake such service and, more often than not, to have a report from the Probation Service. I hope that where the probation service sets out that the individual concerned is appropriate for community service the community service option will be preferred over the imprisonment option unless the background circumstances of a conviction indicate that for the protection of the community the nature of the offence warrants a prison sentence.

It is important to look at statistics in this regard. When I came into office I had considerable concern that there had been an inadequate approach by previous Governments in addressing the shortage of prison spaces and ensuring that the integrity of our criminal justice system and the administration of justice was upheld. I had particular concern about the number of prisoners on temporary release. Some prisoners are on temporary release for very good reasons, and we will always have some prisoners on temporary release, but there is a cohort of prisoners who are on temporary release, to whom Senator Mullins referred a few moments ago, for no reason other than a shortage of prison spaces.

A particularly interesting statistic for Members of the House are the numbers on Friday, 22 July, when I looked at where we stood. On that date, a total of 5,479 prisoners were in the system. This does not mean they were in jail, it means they were in the system and prospectively should have been in prison. The number on temporary release due to cell incapacity was 612. These are not individuals who were entitled to remission; these are individuals who were released for no reason other than that we have a serious shortage of prison spaces. As of 22 July 2011 we had what is known as "bed capacity" in our prisons of 4,510. This means the entire prison infrastructure was able to provide sleeping accommodation for 4,510. This is within a cell structure that, based on the perception of the Inspector of Prisons, should house less than 4,000 prisoners. In some instances, there were two prisoners to a cell designed for only one prisoner and, in some instances, there were three to a cell.

We have a problem in that at present our prisons are not capable of accommodating the number of prisoners who are being sentenced to prison terms. There will be some change in this. Additional places will become available in the not too distant future, for example in the Midlands prison. We need to ensure that where people are sentenced to terms of imprisonment they truly serve those terms of imprisonment and that we do not have the type of situation described by Senator Mullins whereby someone spends a day or two in prison and then is simply released. They are released usually because there is a perception by the prison governor that they do not pose a threat to the community and there is a need to create an extra space for another sentenced person for whom a period in prison is necessary in the public interest.

I am concerned that if those 612 individuals, to whom I referred as being on temporary release without reaching remission, had been sentenced to community service instead of a prison term, they would have not occupied a cell which would have been saving to the taxpayer; they would have paid back the community for the offence they committed at far less cost to the community and to its benefit; and we would be upholding the integrity of the criminal justice system. It is very important that our Judiciary in exercising its sentencing discretion understands the limits of the capacities in our prisons and understands the alternative options that are available to imprisonment and utilises them in the interests of the community and in the interests of ensuring the integrity of the criminal justice system is upheld.

I was interested in the contributions made by a number of Senators who spoke about the alternatives to imprisonment. There is a whole range of alternatives which we should use, some of which have started to be used and others are very much at an experimental stage. A great deal more can be done in the area of restorative justice. I am looking at developments of this nature in the Department. There were some pilot schemes in this area and its usage could be greatly expanded. There is the possibility of using a form of sentencing for certain types of prisoners that is used elsewhere, whereby the sentence is in effect that they are confined to their homes at night and there is electronic monitoring to ensure they comply with this. If they are in employment or education it allows them to continue.

I am also looking at another method of using the community service scheme where we have prisoners held in prison for some years who are of good behaviour and pose no threat to the community but have not yet reached the stage where based on the period of remission they are entitled to release. We are looking at a pilot scheme of releasing some of these prisoners, subject to the condition and on agreement that they would do community service. This evening, we have been speaking about community service as an alternative to imprisonment. There may be a role community service can play with regard to facilitating the release from prison of some individuals who pose no threat to a community and whose contribution by way of community service would be to the greater good of the community than their remaining in prison and, engaging in community service may be of benefit to them in refocusing them in the context of their release.

I regret that Senator Cullinane has departed. I appreciate that it has been a long day.