Prisons and Alternative Sentencing Options: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Anne Rabbitte (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I thank the Minister for being here and giving myself and my colleagues time to have statements on prison conditions and alternative sentencing. I do not come from a legal background. I am on the justice committee. I attended Limerick Prison with Senator Ruane and that opened my eyes to what the conditions were like. It was my first time ever to visit a prison and it has had a lasting impact on me. We talk about the dignity of people if we want to help with rehabilitation and reform, but what I saw there that day was reflective of the contributions here today. I genuinely believe that the Minister's prison system is actually a gatekeeper for public health where we have failed within public health. I do not say it is true for all, but for a portion. That portion of people may never, for example, have been diagnosed with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, FASD. These people go from flight to fight. They are the teenagers who drop out of school. They are the teenagers who then may not participate in Youthreach. They have turned 18 and all of a sudden they are in the judicial system without ever having known their condition. I say exactly the same about Huntington's disease. This is another classic example of a neurological disease that does not manifest itself until people hit their late teens and early adulthood, but its sufferers present an awful lot in relation to crime, particularly minor crime that escalates, while never having got that understanding. There are a number of combinations here. We also have people who have had reduced education hours or reduced time in education. These reduced hours within classroom settings are going to cause damage in time to come. Whether they are in special classes or special units, at the end of the day and unless we have proper intervention, supports and an understanding of what a person's condition is, it will manifest and present. Sometimes, the decision will then be made that the best place to manage - that is the word used - that person due to how they are presenting is within the judicial system. I believe in the rehabilitation of and working with individuals. We have not really explored what rehabilitation would look like outside the prison system. I really welcome the amending of legislation on community service orders from 240 to 480 hours so that people get the opportunity to get back into education and acquire hope while also understanding whatever the condition that presents in them is and how they can live within a community setting completely. Senator Ruane has spoken about parts of the US. I know from the research that I am doing that they have gone further in the US with young offenders than what we have in the youth diversion programme. They give people the opportunity to participate in community service but also within rehabilitation. What has come out of a number of the studies that have been done is that, where people have been given the opportunity to participate in rehabilitation, there has been a 96% take-up and it has ensured that the numbers reoffending have dropped. There are great opportunities, and I believe the Minister is the Minister to effect this sort of change. Prison has to be there for people who do wrong, but for people who have never had the opportunity to understand what has been their underlying condition, we need to afford them that opportunity and invest in that. I agree with Senator Harmon on education within the Prison Service. We need to really look at what we are delivering as a form of education within prison. We need to look at what people are stepping back out to. Are they stepping back out into employment? Are they equipped to participate in employment? Are there really good apprenticeship models there? In Limerick Prison, a lot of people were participating in work there but were finding it very difficult to get into employment. We need to partner with industry as well in order that there will be a step-out model and that it will not just be confined to training. Training is one thing, but it is really about breaking away from the poverty element when people step back out. That is my two and six, as they say. I do not have a legal background, but I genuinely want to ensure that we can make a difference here. --- 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