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MORE THAN 2,000 people are still being sent to prison for not paying court fines, according to the Irish Prison Service report due to be published shortly.
In 2014, the United Nations expressed concern at the number of people going to prison for failure to pay fines in Ireland and told them to enact a law that would prevent it and offer an alternative to imprisonment.
Two years later a new law came into effect – the Fines Act – introducing new measures for fine repayments.
All fines over €100 can now be paid by installments, which means people are only brought to court if they default on repayments. Fines are also now set at a level that considers a person’s financial circumstances.
If people still don’t pay up, a judge can make an attachment order to deduct the outstanding debt from income other than social welfare.
In 2016, 8,439 people were incarcerated for not paying a fine, which was a significant drop from 15,099 in 2016.
This week the Cabinet noted the latest report shows that in 2017 there were 2,261 people imprisoned for non-payment of fines, a 73% decrease.
Court fine
A government spokesperson said the latest figures show the first real impact of the implementation of the fines legislation.
The report also finds that there has been an increase of 7% in community orders issued by the courts. In 2016, there were 2,067 orders made, while in 2017 there were 2,215.
In 2017 there were 9,287 people put in prison, which is a decrease of 38.5% on the 2016 total of 15,099.
Ministers also noted that the introduction of an amendment to the Prison Rules in 2017 has brought Ireland into line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (known as the Mandela Rules) in respect of issues of restricted regime and solitary confinement.
The government has welcomed the “very significant drop” in the number of prisoners in solitary confinement. These prisoners are removed from the general prison population and are on their own for up to 22 or 23 hours.
Solitary confinement
In the first quarter of 2017, there were 72 held in solitary confinement. This number fell to nine in quarter four of last year.
This is a significant fall from 211 prisoners being held in solitary confinement in 2013.
At this weeks Cabinet meeting, ministers also noted the Joint Irish Prison Service / Probation Service Strategic Plan 2018-2020 which sets out an ambitious set of actions and a multi-agency approach to offender management and rehabilitation from pre to post imprisonment.
The aim of joint up thinking is to reduce re-offending and improve prisoner outcomes. The strategy is underpinned by a recognition that the costs of re-offending by ex-prisoners can be devastating and long-term and are frequently felt by the most vulnerable in our society.
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What a negative headline!There is a lot of good news in this article,reflecting the hard work done in these DEIS schools.But of course the headline just addresses the negative part!
Headline also suggests that living in an urban area is universally detrimental to educational attainment when in fact the article only refers to urban deis schools and as ailish pointed out above, the article highlights significant improvements in English and maths within those schools.
Sorry, as Aileen pointed out.
Typo in headline
“Urban pupils are more worser* at English and maths”
A neighbour of mine would tell you he supplies food to the canteen in one of these Deis school. He tell you nothing best is supplied. No expense is spared apparently. Even fizzy drinks is supplied on occasion. Compare this to where my children go to school in a small country school. The only food they get is what we send them with them in their lunchbox. Who the worst off and there was me thinking all children are suspose to be treated equally under the constitution.
Sure when I went to school we got nothing at all, walked there barefoot at 6 in the morning. Would be lucky to grab a mouthful of chalk dust at lunch time. We got some learnin’ done
“Mouthful of chalk dust”
I cried laughing after reading that.
Parental income has much less to do with the standard of education a child recieves than parental involvement. How many of the kids struggling to read do you think have a parent that reads to them? Its time for these parents to take responsibility for their kids.
The 22:1 ratio is an error in the article. This only applies up to first or second class I believe after which the 22:1 ratio is classed as a desirable ratio but not enforceable. As such you can have classes(3rd,4th,5th,6th)in Deis I schools with 23-36 children in them.
Are Ya bleedin jokin me ?
I don’t think he is langer boyyyyyy.
Plenty of jobs at the Journal for the ones who have spelling difficulties in the future.
Worser…….is this a word???
Used to be in the 16th century
Think it’s supposed to be play on words Claire!!
I went to a rural DEIS primary school, our class size was 33-37.
These ratios are a new enough rule.
I went to a deis school in rural Ireland, I did ok but it was an uphill battle, the school was underfunded and understaffed. chronic unemployment/underemployment means children in disadvantaged areas are less motivated as it is unlikely they will have the money for third level even if they get the grades.
generational poverty also causes a lot of these problems, its called a poverty trap for a reason
We live in a city and drive our daughter six miles out the road to go to school. A bit of a trek and hits the pocket a bit more. But smaller classes, a higher standard or education, and you know that the child is mixing with people of good stock.
“Mixing with people of good stock” that comment says a lot about you as a person. Hopefully your children won’t grow up with such a ridiculous attitude.
All education correspondents seem to take for granted that the DES claim that literacy and numeracy levels have risen due to its campaign of recent years is valid. There is insufficient evidence supporting this claim.
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