PRISON PLACES KEY MOVE IN CRIME WAR

THE cornerstone of a successful Government policy to bring down the crime
rate is the provision of adequate jail spaces.

For much of this decade successive Governments have been dogged by a
critical shortage of prison accommodation giving birth to the revolving
door syndrome which made a nonsense of other attempted crackdowns on
criminals.

Senior garda officers, judges at all court levels and others at the cutting
edge of the crime debate all made their views known that without the
deterrence of being locked up to serve a full sentence the law and order
war could never be won.

But at a time of financial cutbacks and little largesse to be spread around
the Cabinet table not too many Justice Ministers were in a position to
stand up and fight the case for money to be spent on building prisons.

A brave battle was fought by the Justice Minister in the last Rainbow
government, the much maligned Nora Owen. But her plan for more jails was
rejected by her Cabinet colleagues who felt the crime fight was already
costing too much money.

They quickly changed their minds, however, following the murder of
journalist Veronica Guerin in June 1996. Suddenly the politicians realised
what the public had known for a very long time. Crime did pay and the
organised gang bosses and the international drug traffickers were beginning
to believe they were invincible.

In opposition, the current Justice Minister John O'Donoghue had also
learned that new prison spaces were vital if the criminals were to be
beaten and no amount of tinkering with the existing buildings would produce
a satisfactory solution.

The war on crime became an election winning slogan for Fianna Fail and in
office O'Donoghue, aided and abetted by civil servants who, at last, had
seen a glimpse of an open satchel, quickly exploited the willingness of his
government colleagues to make the necessary cash available. The impact of
the increase in prison spaces already provided is revealed today in this
newspaper with the latest snapshot of the prison population for the last
four years showing that the numbers in custody at a given time have jumped
from 2111 in 1995 to 2728 this month.

Even more significant is that within the past year the numbers out on
temporary release have dropped dramatically form 616 to 416 - the first
step, hopefully, in the permanent closure of the revolving door. Those on
temporary release account for 13.2pc of the number currently serving a jail
sentence, compared to 19.9pc last year, and some form of parole will always
be a vital part of the prison system.

But the provision of an extra one thousand prison spaces as a result of the
policies adopted by O'Donoghue so far have sent a clear signal to hardened
and serious criminals that they if they are jailed by the courts they will
serve their full sentence behind bars.

He will probably come in for some criticism as a result of his decision to
press ahead with plans to add a further one thousand spaces. Ironically,
the critics will include Fine Gael who seem to have forgotten the problems
they faced because of the Rainbow refusal to sanction prison building until
the gun was literally put to their heads.

The well intentioned penal reform groups and the academics are correct when
they argue that in the long term the solution is to be found through
rehabilitation and community based sanctions, allied to proper environment,
health and education policies, rather than locking up more people.

But that must remain a long term, or at least medium term objective and the
Government appears to be conscious of those views as Child Care Minister
Frank Fahey shows today with the disclosure that a pilot scheme is being
set up with 4m pound funding to involve minor offenders in job and sports
projects.

Before the community based schemes can be expanded, however, there are a
number of priorities to be tackled. Some of the critics opposing the prison
building have also been calling out for years for better conditions in
Mountjoy.

A wing by wing refurbishment programme within Mountjoy has now been
approved by the Government but to achieve that objective it is necessary to
transfer the prisoners elsewhere and that cannot be achieved unless more
spaces are available.

The long awaited implementation of the bail law changes, approved by the
public in a referendum two years ago, is also on the agenda for the summer
and that, too, cannot be put into action unless there are more spaces. It
is only through acting from a position of strength, by proving to the
fulltime criminals that the jail option is a viable one, that the
Government can hope to be successful with a policy based on alternatives to
prison.