NOW THAT THE makeup of the incoming government is fairly apparent, attention turns to the promises that the different coalition partners will negotiate over the coming weeks and include in their Programme for Government.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has six priorities to address systemic challenges in the justice system, reduce offending, enhance public safety, and ensure dignity and fairness for all.
During the General Election campaign, some manifestos tried to outdo each other in the “tough on crime” stakes. However, proposals to create additional prison spaces, or even to build a whole new prison, will do little to alleviate today’s prison overcrowding crisis, with safe capacity levels breached daily resulting in unacceptable living conditions and increasing tensions.
By focusing on expanding prisons, our leaders are sending a message – perhaps unintentionally – that they are more concerned with dealing with the aftermath of crime rather than preventing it from happening in the first place. While many politicians believe that growing our prison estate and increasing the length of sentences will reduce offending, plenty of evidence demonstrates that prison does not act as a deterrent in this way.
Furthermore, mandatory minimum sentences are ineffective at reducing crime and disproportionately impact already marginalised groups. And with the prison population at an all-time high, people committed to custody cannot access the rehabilitative supports that they need to turn their lives around and take a different path.
Notably, these political perceptions are out of step with public opinion. In public attitudes polling commissioned by IPRT in October 2024, four out of five people stated that it is important that the next Programme for Government prioritises alternatives to prison in response to non-violent offending (81 per cent). Two-thirds of people did not think that prison expansion was the solution to address overcrowding, and when asked how they would spend a budget of €10 million to tackle crime, additional prison places ranked fifth out of seven options.
Top of the list was more Gardaí (41 per cent) with drug treatment (21 per cent) and youth work (10 per cent) in second and third place. The general public clearly understands that treating the root causes of offending – mental health, addiction, homelessness and poverty – will do more to make our communities safer than punitive measures like imprisonment that often provide a sense of security that is often false.
To be clear, we are not making excuses for people who have committed offences, nor are we trying to minimise the experience of victims of crime. We are, however, highlighting that there are many reasons why someone interacts with the criminal justice system. Over-reliance on imprisonment, especially for less serious and non-violent offences, leads to overcrowding and undermines rehabilitation efforts. Community sanctions like probation supervision and restorative justice, when appropriate to use, are more effective at reducing reoffending and have a price tag of less than 10 per cent of the almost €90,000 it costs to keep one person in prison for a year. And for people in prison who have committed more serious or violent crimes, they would have greater access to rehabilitative supports and programmes to address their offending behaviour and ensure they do not pose a risk upon release.
According to the Irish Prison Service’s recently released 2023 annual report, 78 per cent of committals to prison last year were for 12 months or less. IPRT believes that legislating for non-custodial sanctions as the default for less serious offences and placing the principle of prison as a last resort on a statutory footing would result in fewer people in prison. This approach would also free up resources to invest in measures that actually work to support people to turn away from criminal behaviour and would be beneficial for the entire community.
A significant proportion of people in prison experience mental health and addiction issues, yet current services to meet their needs are wholly inadequate because there is so much pressure on the system. Implementing many of the sensible recommendations of the High Level Task Force on Mental Health and Addiction to intervene early or divert people with complex needs away from prison – or the criminal justice system entirely – and into appropriate services vastly increases the chances that they will not re-offend.
Ireland remains the only EU State to not yet ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). Draft legislation was introduced in 2022 and was reviewed by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice. It could be progressed and enacted quickly if afforded priority by the next government. It would ensure independent oversight of all places of detention in Ireland and provide a preventative system of oversight to prevent harm and ill-treatment from occurring, rather than responding after the fact.
Similarly, legislation to reduce barriers to employment and education for people with convictions was first proposed in 2018 and had cross-party support when it passed all stages in the Seanad in 2021. It could be enacted relatively quickly if the political will exists to do so. A whole-of-government strategy to support rehabilitation and reintegration would go a long way to fund and deliver supports and services to people on release from prison, which is clearly in everyone’s interests.
Finally, we would urge the next government to develop an interdepartmental strategy to support children impacted by parental imprisonment who regularly face significant emotional, social and economic challenges, often leading to adverse impacts on their lives. Promoting social inclusion and supporting them to maintain a relationship with their parent is a low-cost, high-impact measure that ensures children’s rights are respected and that they do not have to bear the unintended consequences of parental imprisonment.
In 2025, IPRT is calling on the incoming government to look at the evidence, listen to the officials who have recently made similar proposals and make the political and moral choice to invest in proven solutions rather than continue to invest in measures that do not deliver a humane system nor the public safety we all desire.
Saoirse Brady is Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust.
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