THE NUMBER of people sent to prison for not paying fines is set to reach about 4,000 this year, almost double the rate of last year and a four-fold increase on 2006.
This means more than one in four prison committals this year relates to the non-payment of fines that were initially imposed as punishment for minor criminal offences.
The high rate of committal in this area comes at a time of record prison overcrowding.
Fine Gael TD Jim O’Keeffe described the figures as “incredible”, saying it was clear thousands of people were being sent to jail “because they are poor”.
This was happening at a time when wrongdoing reaching hundreds of millions of euro in the banking sector had gone unpunished.
“Jails should be for serious offenders. Sending people to jail because they haven’t paid a fine is in stark contrast to the way some of the financial shenanigans in the banking sector have been handled,” said Mr O’Keeffe.
He said the matter could be resolved if the courts had the power to collect instalments each week from the income or social welfare payments of a person on whom a fine had been imposed.
The new Department of Justice figures show the number of people being imprisoned for non-payment of fines has increased very significantly since the recession started and that the rate is continuing to escalate.
In 2006 some 1,089 people were jailed for not paying fines. That figure increased marginally to 1,335 in 2007. However, in 2008 as the recession took hold the numbers jailed almost doubled to 2,520.
In the first six months of this year the rate continued to rise very significantly, to 1,879 committals. If that trend continues in the second half of this year, as is expected, the number of fines-related prison committals for 2009 will have reached 4,000.
The total number of people sent to jail, for all crime categories, this year is expected to be between 15,000 and 16,000. The figures were supplied to Mr O’Keeffe in response to a written Dáil question.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he expected the numbers being sent to jails for non-payment of fines to “fall substantially” when the Fines Bill is enacted.
This will allow for the payment of fines by instalments. It will also give the courts power to impose a community service order for non-payment of a fine. Fines are handed down by the courts in cases of minor, non-violent offences, ranging from public-order offences to non-payment of a TV licence. Offenders are warned that they will be jailed if the relevant fine is not paid.
Most of the people who are jailed at present for the non-payment of fines are imprisoned for a very short period, sometimes just 24 hours.