PAPER ROUND: Two youths who a judge said were "basically terrorising" people in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, were remanded on bail this week because there were no detention places available, reported the Western People.
Judge Mary Fahy, who said the boys had been "marauding around the town", imposed a curfew on them and directed that all avenues be explored for dealing with the young offenders.
The paper's editorial had a few ideas of its own. As regards dealing with "joyriders", it said, "perhaps a spell in a boot camp would sort out anyone who attempts this deadly pursuit".
Another person who a court report in the Echo said had been terrorising the town of Enniscorthy was not released on remand, however.
A homeless man, who had been committed to a psychiatric hospital by his parents when he was aged 13, was sentenced to 14 months for criminal damage, assault and public order offences.
In this case, Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin was reported as saying that, considering the man's tragic life story, "I don't want to be too hard on him".
Nevertheless, the judge said, "no matter what problems he has or has had, he cannot be terrorising people". The man was given sentences of six months, four months and four months, to run consecutively.
These types of criminal cases and the recent deaths of two gardaí put crime, as the Meath Chronicle noted in its editorial, "at the top of the news agenda and is likely to become a major issue during the general election".
The paper told its readers to let the politicians know their views on crime. However, it noted that the dilemma over how best to deal with young offenders "is too important to be left to the political parties to use as a weapon with which to beat each other".
Should public funds be spent, the paper asked, on dealing with potential offenders before they did any wrong, on more resources for the gardaí, or better prisons and detention centres, or a combination of these and other measures?
Voters should have their say regarding violent offenders, it said. "When they come to your doorstep asking for your vote, let them know what you think".
As well as criminal justice policy, wider political issues featured largely in the regional press this week. Papers had photos of candidates and their slogans, clinic hours and contact details dotted throughout their pages. Many had local constituency polls.
Several papers urged their readers to look beyond the electioneering. The Corkman, for example, had "Time to say No to gombeens" as the headline to its editorial.
In the State, it said, the democratic term "answerable to the people" was interpreted to mean "answerable for whether or not the potholes outside our door should be fixed before those in front of the neighbour's place. We forget that TDs and ministers might make better use of their time representing the broad interests of their constituents and to legislate in the interest of the country."
It continued: "We will see the system of Irish clientelist politics in all its glory in the coming months as politicians of all hues extend their vocabularies promising us the sun, moon and stars.
"If we let them get away with making these promises on our doorsteps, we are only propagating the kind of politics that led Bobby Molloy into the repulsive position of making representation on behalf of a child rapist."