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INMATES HAVE BEEN given €500,000 in interest-free loans by the Irish Prison Service during the past three years, it has been revealed.
The loans were provided for a wide variety of purposes, including the purchase of discretionary items such as games consoles and stereos, as well as helping to cover the cost of communions and confirmations.
One female prisoner at the Dóchas Centre in Dublin used a €300 loan to buy a dog last year, while another inmate at Limerick Prison had to borrow €290 to pay back the money they owed to the tuck shop.
The interest-free loans are repaid by deducting an amount from the prisoner’s pocket money each week. Inmates receive an allowance of up to €2.20 per day, which is usually spent on items available from the prison tuck shop or on services such as television rental.
The Irish Prison Service (IPS) has said that all loans are repaid “in general”, although inmates can walk away from the debt if they get released earlier than planned.
“The criteria for providing loans to a prisoner are determined by each governor. Loans are given to prisoners for numerous reasons. For example, confirmations, communions, family birthdays, for issues to family members, to purchase radios, Playstations, toiletries, etc,” said a spokesperson for the IPS.
Repayment plans are put in place based on a number of criteria – such as release dates, available cash balances – to ensure they are repaid prior to release. In general, all loans are repaid unless a prisoner is released earlier.
Records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that a total of €498,708 was given to convicted criminals by the IPS in interest-free loans during the past three years.
Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, which houses Graham Dwyer, Mark Nash and Gerald Barry, provided €139,880 in loans to its prisoners during that period – more than any other jail.
The next-biggest lender was Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, where prisoners borrowed a total of €88,003 over three years. The Dóchas Centre on the Mountjoy campus, where female offenders are detained, provided a total of €30,366 in loans to its inmates.
A short list of examples in respect of loans that were approved last year was provided by the IPS. These included a €300 “Christmas loan” for a prisoner in Mountjoy, €300 for an Xbox at Limerick Prison, €300 for a stereo at Midlands Prison, and €300 for a dog at the Dóchas Centre.
“When a loan is given to a prisoner, a direct debit is set up to automatically debit the prisoner’s account each Sunday night with the amount,” the spokesperson said.
The repayment amount is determined by the value of the loan, the regime the prisoner is on, and the expected release date of the prisoner.
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I have heard it all now!!
@Derek Byrne: absolutely incredible! Incredible!
They’re a bit like our TD’s in Leinster House who’d peal an orange in their trouser pocket rather than settle their Dail bar tab.
@Frank Cauldhame: Peel an orange in their pockets with boxing gloves on…..
@flabar oflabar: lol ;-)
@Deborah Behan: __ Yes, it’s criminal isn’t it?
€300 for a stereo?
@Derek Goulding: Nooo.. Well its more a Kinder-Stereo.. Its purchased by a relative with the money.
First reaction was… wow – 0% loans, but , as long as the amounts are paid back in full, it should not be an issue. No bank or credit union on the outside would give you a zero interest loan however…
@Thomas Conneely: “As long as the amounts are paid back..” They’re receiving interest-free loans for Playstations which are paid back out of their allowance, who pays for their fcuking allowance!?
@Aaron: Who pay for food and electricity in prisons @Aaron ?
@Aaron:
lol straight to the point Aaron……Love it
@cortisola: Some sort of community farm supplied electricity by prisoner-powered exercise bikes! Viva la revolution!!
@Aaron: The allowance has to be for the benefit of the staff working there. Stick & carrot, something that can be taken away for bad behaviour. I assume it’s a notional concept on a ‘slate’ rather than actual cash that can be exchanged for drugs inside. Come to think of it, they should probably only dispense cigs one at a time in a smoking room to kill any kind of a prison economy.
Ok, well I can understand a game console or family issues to a degree – not that I agree with them – but a dog? Why would someone in prison need a dog?
@meatyslaps: more likely it was a present for someone on the outside
@meatyslaps: you can understand a games console , jesus ever hear of a book , even from a library . u can actually understand the state giving someone in prison a loan for a game console . Paid back from a social welfare allowance .
I’m working in Midlands Prison tomorrow, wonder do they have a Mortgage Advisor??
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: no mortgage advisor but if you tip over to the high security wing you can buy everything from drugs,phones,budgiegars,moonshine,smokes,dvd’s etc
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: im wondering are they on trivago
Interest free paid for with my taxes.
The bankers who can’t seem to be prosecuted by our useless courts are laughing at the squabbling by commentators here over pittance allowances & loans given to TV licence and fines defaulters.
So the dog is bought, hasn’t committed a crime but ends up behind bars. That’s ruff justice.
Dog aside (seriously? maybe a gift for a family member), I don’t really see a massive problem with this. We’re talking small amounts and the idea of having an allowance to budget etc keeps prisoners thinking about finance and day to day expenses, I’m sure that helps ease the shock of reentering society and suddenly not having all your meals provided and needing to budget your welfare or whatever.
@Guy Incognito: re-enterinf society. The real world requires people to pay interest on loans.
@Guy Incognito: are you for real? You think it keeps prisoners thinking about financr and day to day expenses so when they get released they will budget their money and be responsible with it ? There should be no loans full stop. Tough sh#t if they want money for their daughters birthday, knowing that they can’t provide that should have them not commit a crime in future so they can be there for their family and provide for them .
@DMurph: Maybe not being able to provide was the reason for the crime in the first place.
@Matt Connolly: provide what ?
@DMurph: food, clothing….a communion outfit.
@Matt Connolly: all of which are provided for by various charities, even lidl sell communion outfits cheap , we also have a very generous social welfare syetem. Obviously there are circumstances of desperation where people make the wrong choice, and in those times, either punishment, help, and/or rehabilitation should come into play.
@DMurph: …..and learning how to pay back a small loan is a part of rehabilitation.
@DMurph: Yeah, I agree, prison should definitely be about extracting the maximum possible punishment, even on non-violent offenders, and any suggestion of rehabilitation or personal redevelopment is patently ridiculous.
@Matt Connolly: an interest free loan, that is being paid back by money they were given for free in the first place !
@DMurph: everyone in this country gets an allowance in some form or another.
@Guy Incognito: I am glad you agree with something I never said. Good man.
@DMurph: would you like a loan to buy a new sarcasm detector?
@Matt Connolly: no thanks, i got his sarcasm loud and clear.
@Matt Connolly: elaborate please, i must be missing something
@Guy Incognito:
Re enter society to go rob a decent hard working family & put misery on them
No Loans No Luxuries
@Guy Incognito: I met a lady who was working as a teacher in Mountjoy. She was saying some of her pupils are planning ahead which subject they will study during their next sentence.
@DMurph: I completely concur. Had to read it twice for the atrocity of it all to sink in.
@Guy Incognito: Do you need a bandage for your bleeding heart. Maybe if we make life in prison as tough as possible, when inmates get out they might stay on the straight & narrow because they don’t want to go back.
Can i get a loan? Oh wait that’s right. I’m a taxpayer! How silly of me.
@Matt Donovan: If you were a Vulture Fund ‘charity’ you could also borrow at near 0% interest rate and stay on the outside into the bargain.
When I was a kid my mother used to go to money lenders (banks would have laughed at her) for money for Christmas at eye watering interest amounts. It’s a pity we couldn’t help out poorer families who aren’t breaking the law out rather than these undeservings.
@Deborah Behan: we are helping them . They get their extra benefits for back to school .. Christmas bonuses etc
I thought prison is a place where all your liberties and freedom is taken from you for answer time…. obviously not Ireland
I am actually stunned after reading that. interest free loans for convicted criminals to buy dogs , games consoles, and send money out for birthdays and communions. It’s meant to be Prison!!!!! F#ckin hell this Country is a Joke. No wonder the sc×m up and down the Country aren’t afraid of the justice system.
@DMurph:
Chill lad, you’ll have a seizure.
@Bat Daly: I’m always chilled lad, it’s only a screen in front of ya, so away ya go .
@DMurph: Yes – prison is supposed to be rehabilitative.
@Matt Connolly: and you think being able to buy an X box in prison that you couldn’t afford outside is rehabilitative ? Good one
@DMurph: By learning how to pay back, they are learning how to afford things. (as opposed to thinking they only way to get something is to take it). Sounds over simplified, but for many, this is how they believed the world worked because it is all they have ever seen.
@Matt Connolly: as I already said. An interest free loan being paid back with money they were given for free in the first place. Other people have to earn money to buy things, or have money saved in a credit union in order to take out a loan. I am all for rehab, but it should be done through education, courses and books, not tv’s , xbox’s, or other luxuries, and as I said, as harsh as it is,they should not be given money to give for birthdays or communions etc.
€2.50 a day? – That’s less than half your tax free allowance (which technically is also money for nothing).
@DMurph: So you are saying if they had to pay interest it would be Ok?
I thought you had to have a licence to be a money lender. How are prison Governors exempted?
@John O’Neill: no interest, duh.
Loans to inmates? Dont you need gainful employment and a spotless credit rating for at least 6 years to qualify for a loan enough to buy a toaster? How does can a criminal who does not have the means to earn money repay a loan?
@Steven Toast: Oh the prison, well taxpayers, also give them the money to pay the loan back so its all good….. wait a minute
@Steven Toast: you pay it back for them with your taxes that they get from social welfare . You hardly expect them to pay it back themselves from working now do you??
Paying tax all my life, trying to keep the mortgage paid and food on the table like most. I really feel like we are the prisoners after reading this!
Only in Ireland can you be incarcerated for a crime and then borrow money from the Prison Service to buy a fuc***g dog!!!! What the hell
is that about?
@Ciaran Peavoy: Interest Free at that!
@Ciaran Peavoy: there’s crazier shit going on in jails in other countries; in South America, they sometimes have the whole family and the dog..
This country is rightly funked up it really is.
We gave the loans ie the taxpayer. Prison paradise !
This is madness. Why aren’t hard pressed families who are not criminals offered interest free loans
We are lending known convicts money so that the poor dears are not too bored in prison. Only in Ireland. And given our judges inclination towards soft sentences, will they even be in there long enough to pay it back?
Eh what????
Might be no harm at all as at least some of them may learn that when you borrow you gotta pay it back. But they should chase those who are freed and still owe money, but allow them to pay after a deferral of a year to give them a chance to get back on their feet. I know the sums are minimal and it may in fact cost more to retrieve it but a letter or two should at least be sent out from prison authorities requesting the money be returned. They’d chase you if it was an accidental overpayment on SW, or if it was a bank, or revenue.
@Niall Sullivan: it would be more helpful for them to learn that you have to work to have nice things, rather than get an allowance for sitting on their hole all day, and then get a tax free advance if they want something
Is this a joke?
Thugs getting loans?
Families homes repossessed?
This country is rightly screwed it really is.
Well that’s one way of keeping them from criminal acts, all they have to do is just give them the money.
Why is this even a story?
This is nothing compared to the interest free/repayment free “loans” white collar criminals have gotten while walking the streets.
While medical cards are taken away from Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors. The state values prisoners more than personnel they poisoned.
I worked in the “system” for 20 years and I did not know that this was a thing.
Excuse me ,we the
They should be billed for their time in prison not getting loans let them pay for their crime. Us taxpayer’s should not have to pay for time in prison. They learn trades and get sky sports in their cells
Money to burn by department of justice…… wonder what the interest rate is? Farsical is an understatement, shambles.
Fiddlesticks!
What a shit hole of a country
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Next you’ll be telling us that they were granted tracker mortgages for when they’re out. I love this country. You couldn’t make this shit up.
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