Madam, - John Kenny (August 18th) argues that Ireland needs more prison places for juveniles. This is not only untrue; it also suggests an approach that runs counter to the spirit and letter of Irish and international law.
The Children Act, 2001 enshrines in our law the well-established international principle that children (those under 18 years) should be detained only as a measure of last resort. To this end, the Act provides for a range of measures to divert offending children from the criminal process and from custody.
In addition to prohibiting the imprisonment of children, the Act provides for the separate detention of children under 16 years in Children Detention Schools (under the remit of the Department of Education and Science), and children over 16 years in Children Detention Centres (under the remit of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform).
The Minister for Education has not identified any need for increased accommodation in Children Detention Schools. Nor is St Patrick's Institution, currently the only juvenile unit for which the Minister for Justice has responsibility, over-subscribed, as the Prison Service annual reports testify.
Those who work in the juvenile justice system know that what is needed is for the Minister to implement and resource fully all of the elements of the Children Act, 2001, particularly those which would offer a range of effective, restorative and rehabilitative responses to offending behaviour.
Keeping young people out of custody not only saves money; it also offers real potential to prevent them from re-offending, something which also benefits their families, communities and society as a whole. Non-custodial sanctions for juveniles should not be an optional extra to be paid for when economies of scale are derived from warehousing offenders elsewhere (as Eoin McMahon suggests, also on August 18), but must be a priority in line with the Children Act, 2001 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Ireland is a party. - Yours, etc.,
URSULA KILKELLY,
Midleton,
Co Cork.