Sex offenders and other high-risk offenders should be considered for early release to relieve the overcrowding crisis in Irish prisons, a group of senior officials has suggested to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.
However, Ms McEntee has rejected the proposals while acceding to a number of other drastic measures aimed at urgently reducing prison numbers. These include the purchasing of prebuilt “rapid deployment cells” for immediate use and extending early-release programmes to prisoners serving mandatory minimum sentences such as those imposed for serious drug dealing and firearms possession.
According to documents obtained by The Irish Times, last March some of the State’s most senior justice officials urged a major overhaul of penal policy to relieve the overcrowding which results in most prisons operating well above their official capacity.
Overcrowding is impacting safety for prisoners and guards, the officials said. The Minister was also warned that there was no capacity to accommodate any surge of prisoners which might result from “large-scale incidents” such as riots.
Violent and sexual offenders, who are generally not eligible for temporary release, are “the largest cohort taking up the greatest amount of prison space”, the officials said.
The recommendations are contained in a report from the Prison Overcrowding Response Group, which comprises senior justice and law-enforcement officials and in a formal letter to the Minister from director general of the Irish Prison Service (IPS) Caron McCaffrey.
The Minister accepted 12 of the 16 recommendations but vetoed some of the more controversial ones relating to the release of sex and high-risk offenders.
A number of other proposals were considered by the group in their deliberations but ultimately rejected as unworkable or contrary to policy.
These included a proposal from the IPS to introduce “waiting lists” for prisons and a recommendation to “immediately” reduce court sittings to “stem the flow” of prisoners entering the system. The group also ultimately rejected a prison service proposal to rent prison spaces in eastern Europe.
[ Prison overcrowding making drug problem worse, warns Irish Penal Reform TrustOpens in new window ]
The overcrowding group rejected a proposal to grant temporary release to repeat offenders, prolific burglars, those convicted of assaulting a garda and those convicted of other “serious offences”.
However, in her separate letter, Ms McCaffrey urged the Minister to consider making temporary release available “on a case-by-case basis” for these prisoners.
She also recommended prisoners subject to historic public safety or barring orders be considered for early release if there is no evidence of a breach of the order. This was also rejected by Ms McEntee.
Both documents included recommendations that temporary release be expanded to certain categories of sex offenders. According to Ms McCaffrey, prisoners convicted of “lesser grade” sexual offences as well as elderly or infirm sex offenders and those convicted of previous, historic offences should be considered.
The overcrowding group recommended consideration of temporary release for sex offenders on condition they are subject to electronic monitoring.
[ Sharp rise in early release of inmates due to prison overcrowdingOpens in new window ]
Most of the proposals revolved around expanding access to temporary release programmes. The group noted large numbers of inmates were granted temporary release on public health grounds during the Covid-19 pandemic and that this has had no discernible impact on community safety.
The Garda operation targeting migrants entering the State without a passport is putting additional pressure on the system, the group said. These prisoners are considered low-risk but, in light of a direction from the Department of Justice, they are not eligible for temporary release.
The IPS has requested this policy be reversed and has noted that it sometimes has to release “more serious, high-risk offenders” to make room for those convicted of low-level immigration offences.
