Oireachtas Justice Committee publishes report on penal reform

On 27 March, the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality published its Sub-Committee's ‘Report on Penal Reform’. The report was launched by Justice Committee Chairman David Staunton and was produced in response to a recent rapid rise in prison numbers.

The research considers the experience of Finland where a hugely successful policy of decarceration has been carried out in recent years. Although the Finnish penal system cannot be directly transferred to Ireland due to differing cultures and legal systems, it is positive that the Oireachtas Committee looked further afield than the United Kingdom for a comparative analysis.

Five changes which constitute an important change of focus were recommended by the Committee. These are:

• A strategy of decarceration. The recommended reduction of numbers in prison one third over a ten year period;
• Community service as a substitute for prison sentences of less than six months that have been imposed for non-violent offences;
• The standard rate of remission should be increased from one-quarter to one-third, with a possible further increase to one-half for certain categories of prisoners, in particular first time offenders;
• A legislative framework should be provided for all forms of early release including parole;
• A rebalancing of the system so that more prisoners are held in open prisons than is the case at present and that all prisoners be held in sanitary and uncrowded conditions that are not an affront to human dignity and a threat to bodily integrity. 

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomed the report and called for government action on all recommendations. The recommendations have attracted cross-party support. Liam Herrick, Executive Director of the IPRT said “A major obstacle to reform in the past has been the politicisation of crime policy. It is very significant that we now have cross-party consensus on what needs to change in order to make the system effective, efficient and to reduce reoffending after release.”

Click here to read the report 

Click here to read a press release from the IPRT

Click here to read an article from the Irish Times and here for an article from the journal.ie