Sir, - Mr O'Donoghue's enthusiasm for incarcerations as a solution to social deprivation surpasses understanding. He proposes to expand the prison estate by some 700 more places in addition to the 1,277 places already being constructed under the Minister's current programme (The Irish Times, May 25th).
As a nation, we have an unenviable record when it comes to locking up our fellow citizens. Reporting at the end of 1998, the National Crime Forum noted that ". . . in proportion to the number of crimes committed, however, the Irish prison population is far from low: approximately double the level in the Netherlands or in England and Wales, and much higher than in such diverse countries as France, Australia or Canada". Mr O'Donoghue appears intent on copper-fastening this record. The link between crime (petty or otherwise) and social deprivation is a commonplace of criminology. The empirical grounding of this link in Ireland has been clearly established by a number of studies including, inter alia, Professor Paul O'Mahony's seminal study of Mountjoy prisoners and Professor Ivana Bacik's analysis of the relationship between crime and poverty in Dublin.
Imprisonment is a course of last resort which, if it ever can be effective, is useful only when backed by a range of support services both during and after imprisonment. Such services are sadly lacking in our penal system, yet in the absence of such support it is inevitable that the newly released offender will re-integrate into a crimogenic and recidivist environment and, in the fullness of time, return to the prison which he or she (usually he) left not all that long ago.
All of this is well known to Mr O'Donoghue. In its final report, published last summer, the expert Group on the Probation and Welfare Service pointed to the need to embrace a "holistic and integrated framework in order to prevent and respond to crime in all its manifestations". Such an approach undoubtedly would cost money but when compared to a price tag of more than £110,000 per prison place, it might well offer better than good value.
Mr O'Donoghue's human warehousing approach to penal policy is unworthy of a society which prides itself on its Christian heritage and its tradition of social solidarity. An "out of sight, out of mind" approach to our social problems will not make our streets safer, rather it will simply further alienate those who appropriate those streets for the lack of a better alternative. - Yours, etc.,
Noel Coghlan, Hillcrest, Lucan, Co Dublin.