Prisons and Alternative Sentencing Options: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel I also attended the briefing in the audiovisual room last week hosted by Senator Aubrey McCarthy that included presentations from Release and the Irish Penal Reform Trust. A very compelling case was made for community-based detention. The talk started with a reference to the high numbers and overcrowding situation in our prisons. At the end of last month, 5,909 prisoners were in our prisons. That is 125% of the capacity. The figure has dropped in the past few weeks. As of last Friday, there were 5,776 prisoners. The capacity, though, is still running at 122%, and over 500 of those prisoners are sleeping on floors. As someone said, there are two people in a space the size of a car parking spot. One person is on a mattress on the floor, where they have the choice of sleeping with their head beside the toilet or beside the cell door. They can sleep beside the toilet or beside the door, where they might get bashed if it is opened and they are still asleep. The situation in our women’s prisons is much worse. The Dóchas Centre and Limerick women’s prison are operating at over 150% of capacity. These figures cannot continue. We have a huge number of prisoners, I do not know the exact number, with mental health issues, intellectual disabilities and autism. I was a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters in the last term and we had witnesses in from the Irish Prison Service. They give us the facts and figures. These prisons are not the places to be able to provide the supports these people need. When asked, they said it was most likely that most of those people would not have been in prison had they received the proper supports in the community, whether for a mental health issue or a disability. Having talked to governors, there are waiting lists in prisons for psychologists and for those who require the services of the mental health hospital. Prison is not the place for people with mental health issues. Last week, we had the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, in this House discussing the mental health Bill that was guillotined. She was lecturing us for not supporting that Bill, when she would not accept any of our amendments to improve it. The Minister of State needs to look at what is happening in society here and the number of people in prison as a result of the failure of the sector for which she is responsible. We need to ask ourselves what prisons are for. As has been said, we need prisons, obviously, for those who commit very serious crimes and who are a danger to society. They need to be punished but that does not mean those places should be inhumane or that prisoners should be receiving inhumane treatment or should not receive support to rehabilitate. However, what we have is a conveyer belt of people who are being given short-term sentences for non-violent crime. More than half of the individuals - 57% - who were released from custody during 2019 reoffended within three years. For young adults that was 78%. That is a huge number that could be avoided. Last week, I brought forward a Private Members' motion on investment in youth services, which is what we need to see. We need investment in youth services, youth diversion centres, education and in areas of deprivation. Resource centres work closely with families and provide vital services but they are so underfunded. If it costs the guts of €100,000 to keep a prisoner, we should put that money into areas where families can be supported and, we hope, avoid a lot of those young people becoming involved in crime. I am aware that is not going to solve the overcrowding problem we have now but it could help prevent it happening in future. People have talked about the drug court, which is an excellent idea and has done excellent work. It was initially established in the north inner city of Dublin and now it extends to the whole county, but could something not be looked at for places far further afield? There are crimes being committed as a result of addiction all over the country. I know many young people who, unfortunately, have become addicted to drugs, committed crimes as a result and who are in and out of prison. They come out but they are not rehabilitated in any way. They are not supported to get into education or employment. A lot of them are homeless and some of them nearly choose to go back into prison because it is a bed for the night and food for a few days. It is just a never-ending circle that does not help anyone. It helps neither the individual nor society and it needs to be looked at. The European model that was talked about last week in the audiovisual room was very interesting. It is something that is being operated in 22 countries quite successfully. The reoffending rate is only 14%, which is very low, in these countries. It is small-scale, community-integrated houses as an alternative to prison. It is still detention and it is still people being incarcerated but they are given the supports, whether addiction or mental health supports, to get into employment and education and to help them find a stable home. It costs on average €40,000 a year. When it is €40,000 versus €100,000 the argument is already won. Can a pilot programme of even one or two community detention houses be looked at initially? We could see how they operate and work. It could then be extended. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-22