Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Tá cuid mhaith de na pointí a bhí le déanamh déanta cheana féin. Tacaím le cuid mhaith den mhéid atá ráite. Is maith an rud é go bhfuilimid ag smaoineamh an bealach céanna.

It is unfortunate that we are taking all stages of the Bill tonight. When so much forward planning has gone into a project such as this, it is a shame we did not plan to break up the different sections, although I will not dwell on that.

I was at a meeting of the Galway city joint policing committee yesterday. A couple of the statistics outlined were quite staggering. For example, there has been a 50% increase in domestic violence in the last six months and also an increase in assault and rape. A stunning statement from the chief superintendent there was that he linked certain increases in crime with the austerity that is happening at the moment, so the wider political perspective has to be taken into consideration. We need to look at who is in prison, why they are in prison and what we can do to counteract that.

The economic scenario is a huge factor in what happens. We see that people who commit certain crimes tend to come from certain socioeconomic backgrounds, which has to be considered. I note it is often said in this and the other House that there are certain people in this State who should be in prison but who are not in prison yet for crimes of an economic nature. It would be nice to see some of those people behind bars.

There is also the issue of recidivism. We have seen in a number of reports on serious recent crimes that the people involved are repeat offenders who were recently allowed out. The question is whether the justice system and the penal system are working. Do we just see prison as a mechanism for locking people up and shutting them away from the general public? Are we really tackling the basic issues of crime that are inherent in our society? I contend we are not doing that as well as we should be.

I share the concerns that have been raised by those such as the Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. While I will not repeat what has already been put on the record by Senator O'Donovan and others, it is useful to make a number of other points from the backup information we have been given. For example, while the daily average number of people in prison in 2012 showed a welcome decline on the figure for 2011, the reality is that, prior to 2012, prison numbers had been rising almost continuously for several decades and had more than doubled since 1990. Between 2007 and 2012, the daily average number of people in prison rose by over 30% and the number of committals to prison rose by 43%, so we obviously have a serious problem.

Doubling up has become normal practice in Irish prisons. On 28 May 2013, over half of the prison population were in multiple-occupancy cells. In Cork prison, less than 20% of prisoners were held in single-occupancy rooms.

The practice whereby large numbers of prisoners are required to slop out continues. This practice has been severely criticised by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. Four prisons within the Irish prison estate do not have in-cell sanitation in every cell, which means 565 prisoners are required to slop out. Of these, 233 are held in Cork prison and 205 are held in the male prison in Mountjoy.

On the broader scenario, the European prison rules on allocation and accommodation from 2006 recommend the following:

18.5 Prisoners shall normally be accommodated during the night in individual cells except where it is preferable for them to share sleeping accommodation.
18.6 Accommodation shall only be shared if it is suitable for this purpose and shall be occupied by prisoners suitable to associate with each other.
18.7 As far as possible, prisoners shall be given a choice before being required to share sleeping accommodation.

The Minister of State noted that this was debated by the justice committee. However, my understanding is that there has been a subsequent report from the Inspector of Prisons which also examined the proposed plan for Cork, which is for 275 prisoners, with a maximum capacity of 310. There will be 170 cells, 30 of which will be single cells. However, in an answer to a parliamentary question, the Minister indicated that there were 39 prisoners serving a sentence of five years or more on 30 June 2013, which is 39 of approximately 232 prisoners. Conservatively, when the new prison is up and running, there will be 47 long-term prisoners. Therefore, planning for 30 single cells is not enough. Furthermore, the inspector in his assessment notes that if those on restricted regimes are locked up for extend periods of time in double cells, this could amount to overcrowding. As of 26 March, 59 prisoners in Cork were on protection, of whom 15 were on a restricted regime - that is, locked in a cell for more than 20 hours per day.

The Jesuit centre advocates for one person, one cell.

At least those prisoners on long-term sentences or restricted regimes should, if they so wish, be given single-cell accommodation to achieve this principle and also that of reducing prison numbers to a minimum. There is an urgent need to cap the prison population size at its current figure of 235 for the new prison, with 47 single cells and a maximum of 94 double cells. Genuine concerns have been expressed that where people are to be in prison they should be imprisoned in suitable circumstances. I hope the Minister of State will take these points into consideration.