Minister Simon Harris says Irish prisons need more beds.
“It’s been happening constantly and is going to be the future as far as we can see when you watch numbers and you look at the daily figures going up and up,”Advertisement
“We know what’s happening in the courts [and] with no sign of any new accommodation it’s just unacceptable.” Yesterday, interim Justice Minister Simon Harris told the Prison Officer Association Conference he had sent a memo to Cabinet asking for approval for four capital projects that would deliver 400 new beds by 2028.The Irish Penal Reform Trust said much of the increase in the prison population was due to the return of courts post-pandemic but also a sign of policy “failure”.
“The Department of Justice in September last year published a review of penal policy options,” Executive Director Molly Joyce told“It was guided by the idea that actually imprisonment is not always the most effective response to crime and that there is often a cheaper and more effective response - for example community sanction.”
Ms Joyce said a greater focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society would be more effective and believes “the will is there” in Government to do that.“I suppose that’s why we were disappointed to see some of the comments from the Minister around expanding the prison estate because we don’t want to see a diversion of focus to that when, actually, we haven’t really put the correct amount of implementation focus on these other measures which we think will be more effective.
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