EXTRA PRISON SPACES 'ARE A WASTE OF STATE FUNDS

JUSTICE Minister, John O'Donoghue, was last night accused of "an
extravagant waste of taxpayers' money" over his pledge to open 2,000
extra prison spaces by the end of the government's term in office.

Irish Penal Reform Trust director, Dr Ian O'Donnell, said the pledge
was difficult to understand and called for a moratorium on prison building.

"For the past two years, crime has been steadily falling and all the
indications are that it is continuing to fall at a significant level
this year," said Dr. O'Donnell. "It's extremely difficult under these
circumstances to understand why we need to almost double the amount of
prison spaces available."

"This will cost many hundreds of millions of pounds and the Minister
must now be asked to justify this enormous expense," he added.

Dr O'Donnell said Ireland's record of jailing far more offenders than
other European countries was unfortunate.

"Jailing people makes it no less likely that they'll re-offend," he
said. "While it is obviously a necessity for some crimes, in general
it is not effective and this has been proven over and over again."

According to the most recent figures, 2,120 people are jailed in
Ireland for every 100,000 crimes committed. This compares to 1,100 in
England and Wales; 1,000 in Holland; 600 in Denmark and 510 in Sweden.
Only the North has a higher ratio than the Republic.

Dr O'Donnell suggested that the prison building programme may be
designed to stimulate growth and create jobs in certain areas, rather
than to tackle crime.

"Take the situation where you have an enormous facility going up in
the midlands with space for 400 prisoners. This is going to be right
beside Portlaoise prison, which is going to be half-empty if the peace
process progresses. It's ludicrous," he said.

The Department of Justice has responded vehemently to the IPRT
criticism. In the case of Portlaoise, a spokesman said that just 30 of
the present prisoners were classified as subversives.

"To say that the prison will be left half empty is not correct," he
said. The spokesman said he was "puzzled" by the line taken by the
IPRT.

"There is an inherent contradiction in this criticism," he said. "The
IPRT has previously highlighted problems in Mountjoy jail and called
for it's closure. But while they want one prison closed, they're
demanding that no others should be opened."

The spokesman said that 1,000 extra spaces will be in place by summer
next year and another 1,000 are planned by the end of the government's
term.

"There is absolutely no question whatsoever of a moratorium on prison
building," he said.

Meanwhile, the Department has announced that the women's section of
Limerick prison is to be completely refurbished. The 12 female
prisoners currently in the jail will be transferred to an existing
block in the prison.

In-cell sanitation will be available to the women prisoners, who are
expected to be moved within a couple of months.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry