A High Court judge has called for "radical alternatives" to the present system for dealing with convicted criminals and said that a large number of offenders should be taken out of prisons.
Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, who has previously said he was shocked at the lack of support offered to prisoners by the probation and welfare services, suggested that Irish people had a "most extraordinary attitude" to criminals.
Mr Justice Kinlen made his comments in the Central Criminal Court when he jailed a Portuguese man for six years for raping and buggering a woman. He said between 70 and 80 per cent of prisoners suffered from addictions or mental illness and the system should be better integrated to care for their needs. He believed many criminals should be in mental hospitals rather than in prison.
Mr Justice Kinlen said it was regrettable that the Central Mental Hospital and the prison service were under the control of different Government departments and he called for more psychiatrists to be appointed to deal with prisoners' mental problems.
Mr Justice Kinlen said the whole area of medical intervention in prison needed to be looked at. As chairman of the Mountjoy Visiting Committee he had visited a prisoner alcohol awareness programme.
The prisoners acted out a scene in which a man came home to his family after spending all his dole money on drink. The prisoners had explored the role with great enthusiasm, yet this programme was available once a year at the most.
In yesterday's case Armando Marques (42), single, from a rural area of the Algarve in Portugal, had pleaded guilty to the crime at his home in Rathmines, Dublin, on December 12th 1998.
Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen said the crime of rape had ruined many lives but noted Marques's mental difficulties. Six years was the minimum sentence he could impose.
Mr Felix McEnroy SC, defending, said Marques was not insane but had mental problems and had received psychiatric help five times since he was 17. The victim said she had been happy before the attack but had since moved job several times and had broken up with her boyfriend. She had abandoned evening classes and found keeping friendships more difficult.
Marques pleaded guilty in October 1999 but his sentence hearing developed into a saga of adjournments from December 1999 until now for a variety of reasons, while he was treated at the Central Mental Hospital.