FOUR OUT of 10 people sent to prison last year were committed for failing to pay court-ordered fines.
The figure increased from 2,520 in 2008 to 4,806 in 2009, a rise of over 90 per cent, which was most likely driven by the economic downturn and a continuing rise in unemployment. A similar surge was recorded in 2008.
Overall, the Irish Prison Service’s annual report for 2009 shows the number being jailed is rising. A total of 12,339 people were sent to prison last year, up 13.6 per cent.
There was a daily average of 535 people on temporary release last year, some 12 per cent of the overall prison population.
The number of sentences of less than three months increased by almost two-thirds – from 3,526 to 5,750. There was a 60 per cent jump in the number sent to prison for road traffic offences – to 3,601.
The report notes that most prisons operated at or above full capacity last year and that the daily average number of prisoners in custody was 3,881 – up 9.5 per cent on 2008.
Mountjoy Prison, which has a capacity of 590, held an average of 632 prisoners each day last year. The Dóchas Centre, a prison for women, had an average of 110 inmates last year, but a listed capacity of only 85.
To cope with the growing numbers, prison authorities say an additional 200 spaces will come on stream this year at Wheatfield Prison and work will soon begin on a 300-capacity block at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise.
In the longer term, work is expected to begin on a scaled-down project at Thornton Hall in Dublin next year, where 400 cells are to be ready by 2014. Some €42 million has been spent on the project to date.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has also announced new legislation designed to reduce the numbers sent to jail for failing to pay fines or civil debt.
There was a total of 814 incidents of violence among prisoners during the year, which the report said was comparatively low and mostly related to matters on the outside – such as drug debts and gang rivalries. There were nine deaths in custody in 2009.
The report showed that some 20 per cent of the entire prison population, or 972 prisoners, were segregated for their own protection on December 4th, 2009.
A total of 132 prisoners absconded from custody either from an open centre or while on accompanied outings. Some 97 of these were back in custody by the end of the year.
The average cost of keeping prisoners dropped by 17 per cent – from €92,717 to €77,222 per person. This was attributed to a rise in the prison population at a time when staff numbers and pay levels have fallen.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust, which campaigns for prisoners’ rights, expressed grave concern over what it described as a “further dramatic increase” in the prison population.
It said the rate of increase was accelerating, and that there was no strategy in place to address the crisis, which was now completely out of control.
“While the average number in custody in 2009 was 3,881, figures this year have consistently remained at above 4,200, reaching 4,491 on July 29th, 2010,” the organisation’s director Liam Herrick said.
“Sending more persons to jail cannot be the barometer of success in our justice system. We need to ask whether imprisonment is the most effective way of preventing crime – and on that score all the evidence suggests that this is a hugely expensive and ineffective approach.”
Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan said the report was an indictment of the failure of Mr Ahern to put in place a prison system that worked.
Mr Flanagan said the increasing number of shorter sentences showed the wrong people were being locked up and that the scaling back of the Thornton Hall project would be keenly felt.
