Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, indeed. None of us likes sudden elections.

I was a bit worried this morning when the vote went against the Government or part of it.
Leaving that aside, I wish to say my party, Fianna Fáil, fully supports the motion. I compliment Senator Bacik on her work on the justice committee and acknowledge that she has done a lot of work on this report. Sometimes the Senators and Deputies who do a lot of the background work for committees are never credited for their time and effort.
I am also glad to hear the amendment suggested by Sinn Féin is being agreed to. Therefore, the Minister of State will have a fairly peaceful evening here and I am sure he is glad of that.
It is important we do everything possible to support the Government in overhauling a very expensive, ineffective and outdated penal system which reflects the late 1960s and 1970s rather than a modern Ireland or what we should espouse to. The system struggles to cope with the thousands of summonses and bench warrants which remain outstanding, Garda numbers are down by over 1,600, and over 16% of our prison population are on temporary release at any given time due to capacity issues. Crime, particularly in Dublin, has become a real concern and has made international headlines. I also acknowledge the tremendous work that has been done in the city of Limerick in outlawing certain criminal gangs and restoring relative peace to its streets.
A report conducted by the Irish Prison Service and the Central Statistics Office in 2013 showed that criminals in Ireland have a recidivism rate of 62.3% within three years. That is an alarming and frightening statistic. Another finding was that over 80% of those who re-offended did so within 12 months of release. Not only is our justice system ineffective in reforming offenders' actions, it is also very costly because in 2012 the average cost of imprisonment per prisoner was €65,404. Therefore, new ideas and a new approach are needed in order to reform the penal system. I reiterate that the proposals put forward in the recent report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, of which I am a member, should be implemented and a plan should be set out to do so.
It is frightening to look at the statistic for prisoners on temporary release since September 2014 which states: Castlerea Prison - 33; Cork Prison - 140, which is in the Minister of State's constituency; Mountjoy Prison - 138 in the male prison and 46 in the female prison; Shelton Abbey Prison - 5; Wheatfield Prison - 54; and the total figure is 642 prisoners. The number of prisoners on temporary release for serious offences are as follows: homicide - 3; sexual offences - 1; and attempts-threat to murder - 59. These are very serious issues.
It is important to note that the penal system was inherited by the Government. The problem of sending people to prison for a week or 14 days for minor issues has existed for as long as I have been alive, and longer. I shall now relate a simple story about a man who lived in a very remote part of Munster and I will not say anything further so as not to identify him. He drove his car to Navan or a town like it in order to buy a part for his tractor but on arrival he discovered the parking meter beside where he parked had a sign which read "out of order". He got the part and went somewhere for a cup of tea which only took him three quarters of an hour. Lo and behold he got a summons for parking illegally which surprised him. He rang the local authority and did everything possible to sort the matter out. Eventually the case went to court, he has no defence counsel to represent him and at huge cost was brought from a remote part of Munster, probably a five hour drive to Dublin, and was accompanied by a local garda just to spend three hours in Mountjoy Prison.
He said in court that he was an honourable man who was 67 years of age at the time and had never been in court in his life. His wife rang me that morning balling her head off and said to me "Poor old John has been taken away, isn't it an awful disgrace." A great damage was done to the family. The same situation happens on a regular basis. People are being brought from either my home town of Bantry or whatever to Cork Prison. They are then released and have to be brought back which involves Garda time. All involved have to be transported. The case I mentioned is not a one-off incident and I felt for the family. Thankfully, the local garda waited until the man was released and accompanied him home on the train. That act of kindness gave the 67-year old man peace of mind but many gardaí would not bother turning around. We must try to eliminate such court cases.
The report contains a proposal that sentences of less than six months be commuted. I concur because we should not send people to prison for perhaps owing their credit union a few hundred euro or whatever and being unable to pay. We must rethink the strategy as it is absolutely ridiculous.
The re-offending rate of two thirds is so worrying that it is serious. I am very interested in the Finnish model of open prisons outlined by Senator Bacik and was very pleased to visit Finland to see an example. It was located on an island and some of its inhabitants went back to college. In one instance a prisoner who committed a serious crime was allowed travel hundreds of miles to bury someone who belonged to him. He was tagged and thus was able to return. That model of open prison is appealing. Inhabitants were treated very well and given a certain amount of freedom thus trust could be built up. If there is no trust then the situation is very serious.
Overcrowding in Irish prisons is appalling. I agree with Senator Bacik's comments that, by and large, we would love to see fewer prisons and prison spaces. Changing the system would be like turning around the Titanic. The system must be changed gradually. We must adopt a new view of what we want prison life to be like for the next 50 years. We must try to eliminate and get away from the past on which, regrettably, prison systems are based.
The committee's report is good. The principle thing to convey to the Government and to the senior Minister is to act on this report sooner rather than later.