Welcome Focus on Community Sanctions in Draft Programme for Government but Inclusion of Prison Expansion Sends Mixed Messages - IPRT

17th January 2025

MEDIA RELEASE

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomes the clear focus on community-based sanctions in Securing Ireland’s Future, the draft Programme for Government, but airs concerns about other measures included in the draft which has been agreed between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and TDs in the Regional Independent Group.  

The restated commitment to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is particularly welcome. IPRT also believes that the reference to extending the use of community sanctions as an alternative to imprisonment where possible, if adopted by the parties and implemented by the next government, will result in better outcomes and help build safer and more equal communities for everyone. However, the inclusion of a commitment to build a super-prison at Thornton Hall has been strongly criticised by IPRT.  

In advance of the 2024 General Election, IPRT campaigned vigorously on ten proposals for candidates and parties to include in their manifestos and their campaigns. Since the election, IPRT has continued to advocate for six key recommendations for inclusion in the Programme for Government 2025+. 

Responding to the publication of the draft Programme for Government, IPRT Executive Director, Saoirse Brady, said: 

“It is encouraging to see the commitment in the draft Programme for Government to enact the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill which would allow ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which IPRT has long advocated for. We see this legislation as unfinished business given it was in the last Programme for Government. It is crucial that this legislation is prioritised and enacted within the first 12 months of the incoming Government, ensuring that Ireland is no longer the only EU country yet to ratify OPCAT. This is important not only from an international reputational perspective but to ensure that the relevant statutory bodies are empowered to ensure that inhumane and degrading treatment is prevented from occurring behind the high prison walls and in other places of detention including prison escort vans and Garda custody, for example.  

Our calls for legislation to extend the use of community sanctions is a welcome inclusion in the draft Programme, particularly mentioning increasing the use of community service orders. Over-reliance on imprisonment, especially for less serious and non-violent offences, has resulted a huge number of people going to prison for short periods of time and it undermines rehabilitation efforts. Community sanctions and increased access to restorative justice, which is also referenced in the draft Programme, are more effective at reducing reoffending and are more cost-effective than imprisonment. These measures also align with public sentiment, with nationally representative public polling commissioned by IPRT in October 2024 finding that the vast majority of adults (81 per cent) support alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders being prioritised in the Programme for Government.  

However, counter to this, IPRT is deeply disappointed to see that the previously shelved proposal to construct a new super-prison at Thornton Hall has been resurrected, and the inclusion of plans to expand existing prison capacity by 1,500 spaces. With a clear focus on more cost-effective community-based sanctions, and a welcome commitment to explore an open prison for women, we would question the need for such a large-scale, costly institution as the proposed Thornton Hall and would suggest that its inclusion sends mixed messages and risks undermining the more progressive commitments in the draft Programme. Evidence shows that increasing the size of and numbers in our prisons does not - and will not - reduce levels of crime. It merely serves to widen the criminal justice net. While at European level, other countries have been successful at closing traditional-style prisons, coupled with Ireland’s support for the European Council’s conclusions on the use of small-scale detention only last June, the proposal to build a super-prison runs completely contrary to that. In fact, in 2019 the Department of Justice described the concept of the ‘super-prison’ as “counterproductive” in modern penal policy terms. Furthermore, this decision would appear to pre-empt the ongoing work of the Working Group on Future Prison Capacity which was tasked with reviewing current need and future-planning for the prison estate and has yet to deliver its recommendations.  

On a more positive note, the continued implementation and reporting on the recommendations of the High Level Taskforce on Mental Health and Addiction is welcome to ensure that people with mental health or addiction issues are diverted from prison where possible and appropriate. It is also encouraging to see measures such as the commitment to a health-led approach to drug addiction and diverting those found in possession of drugs for personal use to health services included in the draft Programme. We know that there is continued interdepartmental work needed to deliver on this important area and the re-establishment of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use is very welcome but its existing recommendations, and any future recommendations, must be delivered sooner rather than later. 

Commitments to invest in youth justice initiatives via the continued rollout of the Youth Justice Strategy is welcome but should be supported by expanded investment in youth work which appears to be absent from the Draft Programme. We know the transformative impact that youth work can have on a child or young person’s life and if we are serious about investing in and delivering on prevention and early intervention then we do need to take a step back and ensure greater levels of investment in youth work alongside the record levels of investment in youth diversion.  

With the recently published Building Pathways Together: Criminal Justice Reintegration Through Employment Strategy 2025-2027 and its planned implementation referenced in the draft Programme, IPRT is surprised that the incoming Government did not take the opportunity to include a specific commitment to enact the Criminal Justice (Rehabilitative Periods) Bill. This legislation, if progressed, would improve the current legislation on disclosing spent convictions which often act as a barrier to access employment, accommodation and everyday services like insurance. This Bill received cross-party support when it passed all stages in the Seanad in 2021. We also believe the lack of a whole-of-government strategy for rehabilitation and reintegration, which IPRT called for, is a missed opportunity.  

IPRT is concerned that the proposed measure to provide a new power to allow the Minister to ask the Judicial Council to draw up sentencing guidelines for a particular crime area within a certain timeframe, could put further pressure on the Council without providing it with any additional resources. It could also result in a more politically reactive approach rather than a considered and proactive approach to developing sentencing guidelines which we believe should set out the clear principles and purposes of sentencing and should focus on particular cohorts of people in contact with the criminal justice system and not only categories of offence. Again, with mentions of introducing new offences or reviewing existing sentences, IPRT reiterates that there needs to be a clear and evidence-informed rationale for these decisions. The welcome inclusion around digitalising the system of recording sentencing data from across the Courts, Prison and Probation Services, the Gardaí, the DPP and the CSO will hopefully further our understanding of sentencing trends in the courts to help plan for any necessary reforms. 

IPRT had hoped that the Draft Programme for Government would recognise and reflect the significant emotional, social, and economic challenges and adverse impact on children and families with a loved one in prison. Despite not being named as a specific commitment, we hope that over the lifetime of the new Government it will consider developing and implementing an interdepartmental strategy to support children impacted by parental imprisonment which includes educational supports and improved visiting conditions.”  

IPRT recognises the huge amount of work that goes into agreeing a draft Programme for Government that all coalition partners can sign off on. There is a lot more detail to analyse in this draft Programme over the coming days and weeks but we look forward to working constructively with the incoming Government to progress some of the more progressive and evidence-informed measures to deliver meaningful reform in the wider criminal justice system during their term in office.   

ENDS  

For all media enquiries, or to arrange an interview with Saoirse Brady, IPRT Executive Director, please contact Michelle Byrne, IPRT Communication and Campaigns Coordinator on:    

M: +353 86 043 3060        E: communications@iprt.ie      W:  www.iprt.ie  

Photo of Saoirse Brady attached. 

NOTES FOR EDITORS:  

1. IPRT is responding to the publication of the draft Programme for Government titled Securing Our Future on 15 January 2025. 

2. Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) | www.iprt.ie  

IPRT is Ireland's leading non-governmental organisation campaigning for the rights of everyone in prison and the progressive reform of Irish penal policy, with prison as a last resort.  

3. Prison figures:  

As of Friday 17 January 2025, there were 5,016 people in prison custody.  

4. IPRT Public Attitudes Polling results