THE MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter has said that the number of prisoners in Irish prisons today has reached an all-time high.
Shatter told the Prison Officers’ Association’s annual conference that for the first time since the founding of the state the number of people serving jail sentences had exceeded 5,000. He also said that almost 800 of these prisoners were on temporary release, RTÉ reports.
The POA said that, because of overcrowding, children were being placed alongside adult inmates – which is contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The minister accepted that the situation was unacceptable and said that he hoped laws aimed at imposing community services sentences instead of jail time would be in place by this July, the Irish Times reports.
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