Bill seeks community service to be considered over jail

JUDGES WILL be required to consider imposing a community service order rather than a jail term where sentences of less than 12 months are being looked at, under new legislation in the Dáil.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said “increasing community service will not significantly impact on available prison space”.

But the Criminal Justice Community Service Amendment Bill “is about diverting those persons receiving relatively short sentences away from prison and making them subject to a sanction which benefits them and their communities”.

Successful community service schemes have included graffiti removal, litter clearing, gardening and other environmental projects but the Minister noted that only a “very small number of courts were responsible for the majority of orders made”.

Citing figures for 2006, he said just 12 courts out of 108 court venues were responsible for 60 per cent of community service orders that year. The Probation Service introduced a pilot programme last year, which increased the number of orders to 1,949 orders in 2010 from 1,158 in 2006.

Mr Shatter stressed the measure will require judges to consider community service, but “whether or not the court proceeds to make an order is entirely a matter for the court”.

Community service orders could deliver at a number levels, he said, with reduced costs to the exchequer, reparation to the community from unpaid work and “allows offenders to remain in work or education” and in their community.

Éamon Ó Cuív (FF, Galway West) highlighted the financial benefits of community service orders and said the “average community service order costs €4,000 while a prison sentence costs €27,000. “That shows the potential savings but if we really want value for money, we should take those savings and reinvest them to deal with the underlying social difficulties faced by people in these communities,” he said.

Jonathan O’Brien (SF, Cork North Central) highlighted inconsistencies in sentencing policy and said many questioned a judicial system which “allows a convicted heroin dealer caught with drugs with a street value of almost €200,000 to get a six-year suspended sentence” and then “sent an individual who failed to pay a fishing fine to Cork Prison for almost one week”.

Maureen O’Sullivan (Ind, Dublin Central) said if the legislation was to work effectively there should be no redundancies for probation officers, who have to make a detailed assessment for the court including “information on the family and lifestyle of the offender, if there are addiction issues, the attitude of the offender and whether there is an acknowledgment of what he or she has done”.

Thomas Pringle (Ind, Donegal South West) highlighted a recommendation by the Irish Penal Reform Trust that “judges should be forced to give a written reason for the decision to imprison upon conviction rather than imposing a community order”.