I was honoured to be asked to write the first draft of the Labour Party’s prison reform document last May and wholeheartedly welcome its launch. As a practicing solicitor specialising in criminal law, as a member of the board of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and as a resident of Dublin’s North Inner City for fourteen years, I also welcome the recent comments of both the prisons chaplains highlighting appalling prison conditions and also the comments of Minister Dermot Ahern that the legislation on community service orders is to be reformed in order promote community service instead of prison as a sanction.

Too often it is assumed that prison is the answer. There needs to be political will to reform this flawed concept. Every politician will tell you that safer communities are a priority. Entire communities can be victims of crime. If we are to be really serious about reducing crime, we have to examine what happens in our prisons, and how those sentenced will be when they come out. Statistics have shown that there are serious rates of recidivism amongst a significant number of prisoners, and yet in 2009, 70% of committals were for six months or less. That means people are deprived of their liberty for crimes that are considered neither serious nor violent. That also implies that the current prison system does not deter offenders, does not reform offenders, and does not reduce crime.

There are other ways. The geographic remit of the Drug Treatment Court should be increased. The Dublin City Business Association (DCBA) has advised me that there is substantial interest in the business community in Community Courts and on this subject they have run various seminars and published two reports.*

Initiatives such that provide employment opportunities to ex-prisoners should be supported. Aspects of projects such as the Unlock project in the UK which provides financial planning for ex-prisoners could be emulated. There needs to be planning for, and support for, programmes that support drug rehabilitation. It is a credit to one particular intensive probation community project that before I worked in the criminal justice system, I lived beside it and was not aware of its existence - yet when a move to another residential area was proposed, there was protest by residents and local businesses. Politicians and residents want some offenders to pay back in the community – everyone accepts it benefits communities and it benefits the taxpayer  - but don’t want the offenders in the community. We cannot have it every way. The links between poverty, substance misuse, homelessness and crime are well documented. Having ex-prisoners on supported and meaningful rehabilitation programmes in the community is infinitely preferable to having unsupported, unrehabilitated ex-prisoners roaming business and residential communities, in and out of prison’s revolving door.

*Note to Editor: Principles that underlie the use of community courts include restoring the community, bridging the gap between communities and courts, knitting together a fractured criminal justice system, helping offenders deal with problems that lead to crime, providing better information  and designing courthouses.