Prisons and Alternative Sentencing Options: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South Ar dtús ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis eis na Seanadóirí as a gcuid óráidí ar an gceist seo, ceist atá fíorthábhachtach ar fad. I thank the Senators for their contributions on this important and challenging debate. I suppose we were discussing two issues here. First is the appropriateness of a court imposing a custodial sentence of prison on a person. Second, if that happens, is the conditions in the prison. There are complex issues. I will deal with the first at the outset and then try to respond to each of the issues identified by Senators. When it comes to the appropriateness of a court imposing a custodial sentence in prison, one of the factors a court has to take into account, and that we as legislators do when drafting criminal justice legislation, is the fact that for the purpose of a punishment, punishment and rehabilitation have to be taken into account. That is the purpose of prison. Prison is about punishment but it is also about rehabilitation. In that context, I want to say, having visited seven or eight prisons since I have been Minister, that there is a lot of good work being done in our prisons. To read the reports of the inspector and to listen to the debates about the legitimate concerns people have about conditions in prisons, I know that you do not hear much about the good work that is being done there, but there is a lot of very good work being done in prisons. I am aware from speaking to prisoners in prison, particularly those who have received lengthy sentences, that very many of them do manage to get their lives back on track and are aspirational, as Senator Ruane said, in terms of getting out of prison and getting on with their lives. Regrettably, it is the case that the individuals who end up incarcerated in prison for lengthy sentences are to a large extent men between the ages of 18 and 35 years. I know from functions I have as Minister that when people are released on temporary release, particularly people who have life sentences, there is not much recidivism when it comes to people who have received long life sentences. A statistic was mentioned earlier, which was correct, about short-term sentences where there was recidivism. That really is because of the chaotic lives lived by people who end up before our courts. I do not make this point to be in any way critical of Senators, but in terms of immediate fixes to the problem of overcrowding in our prisons, there is no immediate solution to that. No one has suggested here that I should do what the UK Government did previously, which was just to introduce legislation that would cut all sentences by a third across the board. Nobody has suggested that very elderly men who are in prison for historical sex offences should no longer remain in prison and that there should be some mechanism of releasing them, taking into account that, at present, they do not form a threat. We need to recognise that there is a complexity to these debates. I was in a debate in the Lower House where there were complaints about the fact that sentences imposed by a court had either been too low a custodial sentence or a suspended sentence. There needs to be some recognition that the whole process of sentencing is a complex process and it will require, in many instances, the imposition of a custodial sentence. I want to thank the Senators for their contributions. I will not go through them all individually because I will not finish them all in the time I have. Many colleagues mentioned addiction. Obviously, there is an issue in terms of people who are sentenced to prison with addiction issues. The reason they are sentenced is not because of their addiction issues, but because they have committed a criminal offence. The criminal offence may have been induced because of their addiction but the reason they were put in prison was because they committed a criminal offence. It is now the case that people in custody have access to a growing range of medical and rehabilitative services to support their rehabilitation, reduce offending and assist with reintegration into society. These include methadone substitution treatment, counselling, psychological intervention, peer-to-peer support programmes, psychological education and the treatment and rehabilitation programme provided by Merchant’s Quay Ireland. It is sometimes the case that part of the reason a court will impose a short custodial sentence on a person who has addiction issues is because the court may believe that the only way that they can get treatment for their addiction is in prison because their chaotic lives and how they will not voluntarily attend treatment mean it is the only way it can be imposed upon them. The drug treatment court was mentioned by a number of Senators. In 2024, the Centre for Justice Innovation was commissioned by my Department to carry out an evaluation of the drug treatment court. The final report was received by my Department at the end of last year. It was shared with a number of the key stakeholders and the final report was received in February 2026. It is currently under consideration. I expect to receive this report in the very near future. A number of Senators also mentioned building further capacity. As I said at the outset, I think it is necessary to build further capacity irrespective of what people’s general view about whether people should be incarcerated more or less under our system. There is no reason that the prison system that we operate at present cannot provide treatment for people who have addiction, as I said, and also there is education that goes on. Senator Harmon indicated that there was very little education in prisons. I know from my own visits that there are education services provided there and there are mechanisms available to people in prison to assist them in getting their lives back on track. Other Senators mentioned the restorative justice programme. I think it was proposed by Senator McCarthy. That is something I will certainly give consideration to. There are situations where there are small detention houses. We are aware of this model and the Department has visited them in Belgium. There are merits to this approach. It is something to bear in mind as part of the solutions. Two of the prisons that are very effective and very impressive are our open prisons, one in Shelton Abbey and one in Loughan House. I visited both of them. Shelton Abbey has its own unique mobile home-type unit where prisoners stay and it seems to work very effectively. I think there is a greater role for open prisons. Those prisons are also very effective in preparing people for getting back into the community. I commended the people in Shelton Abbey, the prison staff there, but also the local community and the businesses in the locality that engage the services of prisoners and, once the prisoners are released, want to keep them on. It is important that we provide prisoners with an opportunity to be aware that there is an employment pathway for them once they leave. People with mental health difficulties are obviously a very complex issue. Again, the reason people are incarcerated is because, notwithstanding their mental health, they have committed serious offences. There are sometimes individuals who are found not guilty of offences but still have to be detained because of their mental health. I have also visited the National Forensic Mental Health Service, the new hospital in Portrane. It is a wonderful facility. It is a vast improvement on what was there previously at Dundrum. On where we go with the prison system in Ireland, I think the justice committee should keep visiting prisons throughout the country. I am pleased people went to Limerick Prison. I have to say Limerick women's prison is one of the finest infrastructural developments that the State has done in recent years. The statistics make it look significant in terms of overcrowding but the rooms where women stay are much larger than the cells represented in the Mountjoy Prison report to which Senator Boyhan referred. I would never like to think of the State warehousing people. This is not something that is being done. We have an obligation when people are incarcerated not just to punish them but to ensure we can rehabilitate them. That is a very important part of my job. --- 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