Prison Cut backs -1,200 Prisoners to be released

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/prisoners-set-for-early-release-in-plan-to-tackle-overcrowding-549661.html

Some 1,200 prisoners are to be released over the next three years as the Irish Prison Service seeks to tackle a long-running overcrowding problem.

Under the plan, 400 inmates who are serving sentences of between one and eight years will be freed each year on temporary release

Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/prisoners-set-for-early-release-in-plan-to-tackle-overcrowding-549661.html#ixzz1tYo8v2vM

Freeing up the prisons for those who wont pay the household charge hahah !!
You could be jailed for not paying the fine for not paying your TV license but you can get away with 150k even if your in full time employment. Now you can be serving an 8 year sentence but you`ll get out because the politicians want to spend the money on deficits instead.

8 year sentences aren`t handed out all too often either!

Is this a justified cutback?

http://www.iprt.ie/prison-facts-2

The current prison population is 4,228 (3rd Feb 2012)

liammur

Deleted User wrote: »

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/prisoners-set-for-early-release-in-plan-to-tackle-overcrowding-549661.html




Freeing up the prisons for those who wont pay the household charge hahah !!
You could be jailed for not paying the fine for not paying your TV license but you can get away with 150k even if your in full time employment. Now you can be serving an 8 year sentence but you`ll get out because the politicians want to spend the money on deficits instead.

8 year sentences aren`t handed out all too often either!

Is this a justified cutback?

Yes, I believe they are right on this one. The cost per prisoner is shocking, now I'm talking about people who haven't paid a tv licence or something minor like that. Scumbags should be kept in for every minute of their sentence.

murphaph

Debtors should not be incarcerated in traditional prisons as they are no danger to anyone. They should be under house arrest using electronic tagging etc. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

This doesn't sound well planned however.

Solair

Why is the threat of prison being used to collect debts?!?!

There should be other means of collection e.g. garnishing wages / dole.

Non payment of fines imposed for say parking offenses, traffic offenses etc should be dealt with through community service orders.

BOHtox

How many are in there for personal drug use/ possession?

Guy:Incognito

Work on getting the cost of keeping prisoners down.

spank_inferno

agreed... and while they are at it, build another god-damn prison!
How hard can they be to construct?

Surely a prison population of a mere 4000 can be managed better than this.

golfwallah

Deleted User wrote: »

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/prisoners-set-for-early-release-in-plan-to-tackle-overcrowding-549661.html

Freeing up the prisons for those who wont pay the household charge hahah !!
You could be jailed for not paying the fine for not paying your TV license but you can get away with 150k even if your in full time employment. Now you can be serving an 8 year sentence but you`ll get out because the politicians want to spend the money on deficits instead.

8 year sentences aren`t handed out all too often either!

Is this a justified cutback?

On this morning’s John Murray show on RTE1, they had an Irish psychologist, trained in Australia, who had extensive experience of assessing prisoners for early release.

I’m paraphrasing, but the gist of it was: where he worked in Australia, Perth, I think, is pretty well to do and, as a result, can afford to implement extensive professionally run rehabilitation programmes in prisons. Every prisoner is assessed by a psychologist before early release and the level and depth of rehabilitation minimise the risk of re-offence. He gave examples of work he had done in both Australia and Ireland.

As regards the early release scheme just announced here, he saw grave risks of re-offending because of the absence of such rehabilitation programmes in Irish prisons.

Asked if he thought the scheme was prompted by professional or economic reasons, he felt the early releases were for the latter. Moreover, the recession, difficulties in gaining employment and absence of marketable skills further added to the risk of re-offending.

mike65

Amazing how the prison population has grown, it was about 2000 30 years ago, and that was when the "troubles" were at their height.

n97 mini

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Work on getting the cost of keeping prisoners down.

Exactly. Prisoners aren't expensive, prison officers and multiple prisons sites that need caretakers etc are expensive.

comeback_kid

mike65 wrote: »

Amazing how the prison population has grown, it was about 2000 30 years ago, and that was when the "troubles" were at their height.

its rarely every alluded to but many believe that the huge increase in our prison population has coincided with the huge decrease in our mental institution population , same thing happened in america in the early eighties , they threw open the doors of the mental institutions and a sizeable number of people either ended up homeless or in prison , the move had the support of all political sides , the conservatives were happy to save money and the liberals were happy because keeping people in insitutions is mean , the reality is that the problem was shifted from one area of the state to another , same thing happened here , a large percentage of our prison population have serious psycholgical problems and thirty years ago would have been in a building with men in white coats rather than men in blue uniforms

Manach

comeback_kid wrote: »

its rarely every alluded to but many believe that the huge increase in our prison population has coincided with the huge decrease in our mental institution population , same thing happened in america in the early eighties , they threw open the doors of the mental institutions and a sizeable number of people either ended up homeless or in prison , the move had the support of all political sides , the conservatives were happy to save money and the liberals were happy because keeping people in insitutions is mean , the reality is that the problem was shifted from one area of the state to another , same thing happened here , a large percentage of our prison population have serious psycholgical problems and thirty years ago would have been in a building with men in white coats rather than men in blue uniforms

- this was also mentioned in a series of podcasts from the Criminology dept. of UC Berkeley which had also occurred in the US prison system.

mike65

Interesting point, I'm also sure that more "petty" crimes are now more likely to see people jailed, albeit for very short periods. It all adds up.

Lantus

spank_inferno wrote: »

agreed... and while they are at it, build another god-damn prison!
How hard can they be to construct?

Surely a prison population of a mere 4000 can be managed better than this.

The thornton hall super prison near swords has cost the taxpayer almost €43 million so far and nothing has yet been built. It may get the go ahead in a severly reduced format though eventually so some relief there.

Building prisons are highly technical and difficult to both design and build in terms of security and other issues. Expensive things to both build and run (although as usual the state ends up paying top dollar for not a lot.)

comeback_kid

mike65 wrote: »

Interesting point, I'm also sure that more "petty" crimes are now more likely to see people jailed, albeit for very short periods. It all adds up.

you could be right although i dont know if people were any less likely to be given a custodial sentance for not paying thier tv licence thirty years ago

comeback_kid

Manach wrote: »

- this was also mentioned in a series of podcasts from the Criminology dept. of UC Berkeley which had also occurred in the US prison system.

you wont hear such acknowledgements from any quater here , not from our universities and certainly not from our media

Yourwellcum

Lantus wrote: »

The thornton hall super prison near swords has cost the taxpayer almost €43 million so far and nothing has yet been built. It may get the go ahead in a severly reduced format though eventually so some relief there.

Building prisons are highly technical and difficult to both design and build in terms of security and other issues. Expensive things to both build and run (although as usual the state ends up paying top dollar for not a lot.)

Thornton Hall will never be built in any form(at least not in my life time).
It was a badly concieved idea from start to finish. Plus its not near swords.

If people want to see how they can save money in respect to prisons they should look into how much construction work costs within the prison estates. Little value for money being achieved and poor work being done imo.

Solair

Can we not just use some of the NAMA buildings.

Many apartment buildings constructed during the boom would be quite similar to prison cells anyway.

Laminations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_City#Maricopa_County_Jail_modification

That's the answer. An Irish Tent City. High perimeter walls, yard fences and a permanent structure containing toilets, showers, and an area for meals. High camera surveillance and daily classes and chores for prisoners (as part of their rehabilitation but also in return for reduction of term, access to amenities etc). We don't have the extreme temperatures Phoenix gets, the worst they'd get is a few days of lashing rain - and if people can put up with that at a weekend concert....

Laminations

http://abouttentcity.com/

Tent City Jail Amenities:

• Two Sky Watch Towers for security.
• Stun fences around the perimeter.
• Facial recognition computer software for inmate identification.
• K-9 units and patrol deputies for additional security.
• Classification Unit conducts background checks on inmates before they are housed in the tents so that dangerous or predatory individuals are not placed there.

And they've made it a revenue-raising tourist attraction! What is the counter-argument for a cheap but secure tent-city prison?