Over-crowded jails: We need a solution that’s fair to all sides

Heuston, we have a problem!

Or, in this case it’s Jim O’Callaghan, the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration who has the problem.

It seems we have too many prisoners and too few prison spaces. There’s such a shortage that some recipients of prison terms just make it as far as the front gate before they are sent packing again.

The Echo reported recently that overcrowding at Cork Prison had reached an all-time high as almost 100 inmates had no bed.

According to figures from the Irish Prison Service, Cork Prison is operating at 133% of capacity, a new record for the chronically overcrowded facility, making Cork, by some distance, the most overcrowded male prison in the country.

At the time of reporting, 394 people were incarcerated in the 296-bed facility, meaning 98 prisoners did not have a bed and had to sleep on the floor or on mattresses.

Nationally, there were 5,552 inmates in a prison system with a capacity for 4,672 prisoners.

We’re not the only country facing this issue. The prison system in the UK is under immense pressure from overcrowding too, with prisons in England and Wales operating at 99% capacity.

Research carried out there by their Ministry of Justice this year also found a direct link between violence behind bars and the overcrowding crisis.

They discovered too that prison officers were 20% more likely to deal with assaults in overcrowded prisons, and that creates additional stress for everyone involved in the prison system. Especially for the officers, who have a tough job as it is.

I have some experience of the work they do, so I sympathise with them for their current predicament.

In 1988, gardaí in Cork, including myself, were drafted in to run Cork Prison when the officers there opted for industrial action. It was a strange environment for us, and it wasn’t easy. We were out of our comfort zone.

Maintaining a safe and secure environment for a prison population requires a lot of effort, and overcrowding isn’t going to make that task any easier.

It’s not good for the prisoners either, but that situation won’t improve until extra accommodation is provided and that could take years.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has put forward an alternative school of thought and suggested that instead of looking to increase prison space, we should be looking at ways of making prisons more efficient and less crowded.

They claim a reduction in overcrowding could be achieved by expanding the availability and use of community sanctions and reducing the increasing numbers of people being held on remand in custody pending trial.

Sounds fine in theory, but in my day, many offenders who were released on bail expected to be found guilty at their trial. So, in anticipation of a custodial sentence, they used the bail opportunity to go on a crime spree to build a nest egg before they were locked up.

‘May as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb’ was the philosophy.

Another plan to reduce imprisonment and increase the use of community-based responses to crime was proposed a few years ago by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice. They called for Ireland to adopt a ‘decarceration strategy’.

They concluded that most people in prison were not dangerous, that prisons do not assist with rehabilitation, and that rising prison numbers reflected political decisions, but did not reduce crime.

The committee suggested using community-based sentences for non-violent offences instead of short prison sentences, and structured early release to help people reintegrate safely.

Great idea in a perfect world, but we don’t live in a perfect world.

I’ve said here many times previously that our judicial system offers offenders plenty of opportunities to mend their ways before they receive a custodial sentence. Prison is usually the last resort for non-violent offenders, but even at that we’re still running out of cells.

Our judiciary can hardly be accused of not using alternative measures to penalise a convicted person. Suspended sentences and use of the probation act feature regularly at sentencing hearings. Our judges are very often criticised for their leniency, and it often appears easier for an offender to get bail than it is to have them remanded in custody.

Anyway, if we are to proceed with building new prisons, I’m not convinced the UK model is the way to go.

According to The Telegraph, bars on cell windows could be eliminated in future prisons because they are considered to be ‘institutional’ and “yesterday’s technology’. There is a suggestion that windows with toughened glass would work better.

Another study has proposed rethinking the architecture of prisons to boost the chances of rehabilitating offenders by ‘normalising their environment’.

A professor of criminology is said to be conducting research into whether calling prisoners ‘men’ and cells ‘rooms’ would help rehabilitation.

I’m no psychologist, but that sounds a bit airy fairy to me. There will always be characters who need to be incarcerated for the greater good of society and not all of them can be rehabilitated either.

Most of us are repulsed when we hear of elderly people having their homes broken into and being robbed, assaulted and battered in their bedrooms by organised gangs of criminals. Or being attacked on the street for the meagre contents of their wallet or purse.

Crimes like these often leave the injured parties with far-reaching consequences. Too afraid to return to the family home or too nervous to leave the house, bringing insecurity into their lives at a time when they should be enjoying their autumn years.

As far as I’m concerned, the perpetrators of these crimes forfeit their right to freedom and deserve to be behind bars.

We must always have space for them, and I’m not particularly concerned about how comfortable they are either.