IRELAND: sentencing system announced: Judges will be able to set minimum life sentences in changes aimed at reducing "re-offending and improve community safety"

IRELAND: Justice Minister Helen McEntee has today published a review of Ireland's prison system which aims to reduce re-offending and improve community safety.

Under the new plans, violent people who are unlikely to cause serious harm will only be sent to prison as a last resort. McEntee said it would help reduce recidivism and overcrowding in prisons.

Now, judges will now have the option of establishing a minimum price for life sentences. In actuality, a judge may opt to sentence someone to life in prison with the requirement that at least 20, 25, or 30 years be served.

According to McEntee, the implementation of minimum tariffs for life sentences will allow courts to guarantee that a convict will serve a predetermined period of time before being eligible to seek for parole.

Judges would have to consider both situations that were aggravating and those that were mitigating.

The assessment also suggests limiting the use of brief prison terms, particularly those of less than three months, and looking into ways to provide the judiciary access to a wider choice of non-custodial penalties.
Community punishments can help solve criminality, lower reoffending, and safeguard the public while holding offenders accountable, according to McEntee.

Non-custodial penalties, such as requiring offenders to perform community service, increase the likelihood that offenders won't commit crimes again by allowing them to maintain ties to their home communities.
McEntee continued by saying that it makes more sense to keep non-violent offenders out of jail and let them carry out their sentences in their own community.

Therefore, community service may be preferable than three months in jail in cases when the offender does not constitute a threat or risk. They keep them connected to the community they require and are less likely to lose their work.
"But it's clear that they're still being punished. Therefore, it's important to consider each case's specific components. The question is whether or not prison is the right course of action in this case, not just for the offender but possibly for the community as a whole. We also need to consider how to try to re-direct people from a life of crime.

Reaction

The Irish Penal Reform Trust welcomed the review today and praised the “forward thinking” for making prison a punishment of last resort.

"The IPRT particularly welcomes the clear focus on community-based sanctions and alternatives to imprisonment to guarantee that people who commit a low-level offence do not have to serve a prison sentence," stated Saoirse Brady, Executive Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT).

This will not only save the tax payer money, but it will also guarantee that justice is administered in a more suitable and proportionate manner, thereby lowering rates of reoffending and encouraging people to abstain from crime, ultimately to society's benefit.

According to Brady, the strategy to lower the jail population acknowledges the "disruptive impact that short sentences in particular may have on individuals."

"Removing persons serving brief sentences from the prison population can aid in improving the management of prison services and means that people serving longer terms should have enhanced access to better living circumstances and pertinent rehabilitative programmes," she continued.