- Huge reduction drives 13.1% decrease in total committals to prison in 2018
- Committals for other offences, excluding fines, rise by 15.4%
- Action being taken to provide additional prison places
The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, has welcomed an 80% reduction in the number of people committed to prison for non-payment of fines. The finding is contained in the Irish Prison Service’s Annual Report for 2018, which the Minister is publishing today. There were 455 committals to prison as a consequence of the non-payment of a court ordered fine during 2018, compared to a figure of 2,261 in 2017. As a result, the total committals to prison decreased by 13.1% in 2018, from 9,287 to 8,071.
Minister Flanagan said:
The implementation of the Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014 has had a very significant impact on the committals to our prisons. We must continue to ensure that violent offenders and other serious offenders are committed to prison, while at the same time switching away from prison sentences and towards less costly non-custodial options for non-violent and less serious offenders.
Alternatives to custody for those serving short sentences continues to be a priority, as evidenced in the 10% increase in the issuing of Community Service Orders in 2018, equating to over €3 million worth of unpaid work for the benefit of communities nationwide.
The report also highlights the importance of collaborative work between the Irish Prison Service and other statutory and non-statutory agencies within the criminal justice system. This includes successful programmes such as Community Return and Community Support Schemes as well JARC – the Joint Agency Response to Crime, the work of which was recognised with a Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Award in 2018.
The Minister also noted important progress in the IPS’s service in Portlaoise including the opening of the National Violence Reduction Unit in the Midlands Prison and the refurbishment of the Irish Prison Service College.
The Minister said:
I was delighted to perform the opening of the National Violence Reduction Unit in the Midlands Prison in November which heralded a new collaborative approach to the management of violent offenders and has contributed greatly to making a safer environment for all those who live and work in our prisons. In addition, the completion of the refurbishment of Irish Prison Service College in Portlaoise has greatly enhanced our ability to provide world class training to our staff and to the new Recruit Prison Officers who will attend there over the coming years.
The Irish Prison Service also opened a second Training Centre in west Dublin over the course of the year. 1,391 staff received continuous professional development programmes in 2018. Over the course of the year, 181 new Recruit Prison Officers also entered the Service.
Continued use of non-custodial options where appropriate, and the ongoing improvements in facilities and training, are particularly important given the rise in committals for other offences, other than fines.
While there was a 13.1% decrease in total committals, this was driven by the huge reduction in fines committals. When fines excluded, committals under sentence for all groups excluding fines increased by 15.4% in 2018, from 3,776 to 4,357. Increases were experienced in all remaining sentence groups with the exception of those sentenced to 1-2 years and those sentenced to life. The most significant increases were for sentences of less than 12 months, with those sentenced for less than 3 months increasing by 158, or 34%, and those sentenced of 3 to less than 6 months increasing by 196, or 15.1%. In total, 71% of all committals under sentence, excluding fines, were for sentences of 12 months or less. As a result, the numbers in custody in our prisons rose sharply from 3,631 on 1 January 2018 to 3,911 on 31 December 2018, an increase of 280 or 7.7%. This increase resulted in pressure being experienced in a number of areas across the system including remand and female prisoners.
The Minister said that he was concerned by the sharp rise in prisoner numbers and that action was being taken. He added:
My Department has been working closely with the Director General of the Irish Prison Service, and we are taking a number of short and medium term steps and actions to address the issue of rising prison numbers. This includes the re-opening of unused accommodation including the Training Unit, which will provide an additional 140 prison spaces. An audit of existing accommodation is underway and I am told this has the potential to provide up to an additional 100 spaces. In addition, the construction contract for a stand-alone female prison in Limerick as well as a new wing to Limerick male prison was recently signed and this development will provide 130 new spaces.