ALMOST 5,000 people were sent to jail last year for failing to pay a fine, more than double the number imprisoned for the same offence during the previous year.
New figures released by the Department of Justice show this upward trend is continuing, with 1,431 people sent to prison for non-payment of fines in the three months to the end of March 2010.
An increasing inability to pay fines due to the recession and a drive by the Garda to execute all bench warrants issued by judges is believed to have caused the huge jump in the imprisonment rate.
The number of committals to prison for non-payment of fines was 4,806 in 2009, up from 2,154 in 2008, 1,335 in 2007 and 1,089 in 2006. This represents a significant percentage of the total number of people sent to prison, which amounted to 13,557 in 2008. Typically, people spend just a few days in prison for non-payment of fines, which means that at any one time there are about 30 people in jail for this offence.
Prof Ian O’Donnell at UCD’s institute of criminology said this was an “absolutely huge rise” in imprisonment rates. He said jailing fine defaulters was a bad policy because it only served to damage families and cost money.
“These are people who have committed minor offences, for example not paying a TV licence or even walking a dog without a leash. Not paying a fine doesn’t justify a prison sentence,” he said.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said yesterday the number of people being sent to prison for not paying fines is too high but this problem should be solved by the enactment of a new Fines Bill.
He said the Fines Bill had now passed the Oireachtas and should be signed into law by President Mary McAleese within days.
This would dramatically reduce the number of people sent to prison for non-payment of fines, he said.
“It will prompt an amazing change in how the District Court deals with non-payment of fines. The whole point of this law is to give alternatives to prison,” said Mr Ahern in an interview.
“I expect the number of committals to prison to fall substantially when this is commenced in July.”
He said the Bill would enable judges to set the level of fines according to a person’s ability to pay, by introducing the concept of “equality of impact”.
This would enable judges to set a lower fine for those people living on social welfare or earning €200 per week than those in employment earning €50,000 a year, said Mr Ahern.
Under the legislation, judges can facilitate people to pay their fines in instalments over a maximum 24-month period when they find it difficult to pay in full. When a person defaults on a fine, a court-appointed receiver can go to a person’s home and seize goods such as a car to pay for the fine instead of the person being sent to prison.
Judges have the discretion to sentence people to community service rather than prison for non-payment of fines under the Bill.
In anticipation of the enactment of the new law, the Probation Service has agreed to increase the maximum number of annual community service orders it handles from 1,600 to 6,000 to help keep people out of jail, said Mr Ahern.
Fine Gael TD Jim O’Keeffe, who has campaigned for change to the law on fines, welcomed the new Bill which he said would ameliorate the situation. But he said it should have included a provision to enable judges to order money to be automatically deducted each week from people’s wages or social welfare payments to help pay a fine.
‘I couldn’t afford to pay the whole amount’ of the fine
MARGARET BUTLER won’t forget last Christmas in a hurry. The businesswoman from Carrig-on-Bannow in Wexford and mother of four spent three days in a cramped prison cell in Mountjoy for failing to pay a planning enforcement fine and costs totalling about €1,800.
“The most humiliating thing about it was being strip-searched and having to take a shower in front of a prison officer,” says Butler, who was sentenced to five days but let out after three to spend Christmas Day with her children. “The whole thing was a nerve-wrecking experience . . . I shared my cell with a drug smuggler and someone on theft charges. I just kept myself to myself,” she says.
Butler was fined by Wexford County Council for placing a mobile chip van on her property without planning permission. She denied this was in breach of planning law, and still insists she did nothing wrong. But, to avoid prison, she sent an €80 cheque to the council and offered to pay the rest in instalments. “I couldn’t afford to pay the whole amount,” she says. However, the cheque was returned by the council, which said it couldn’t accept an instalment plan to pay off the fine.
Butler, who owns the Sea Breeze dry cleaners in Carrig-on-Bannow, was later escorted by two gardaí to Dublin and committed to Mountjoy Prison for non-payment.
Butler’s experience is far from unique. She is one of 4,806 people committed to prison last year for failing to pay a fine. This was more than double 2008’s number.
Fines for motoring offences are the most common type of fine levied by the District Court, but fines are also imposed by judges for public order offences, dodging bus fares, not paying TV licences and many other minor offences.
Prof Ian O’Donnell of UCD’s institute of criminology says the dramatic rise in prison terms for non-payment of fines is worrying because it damages families and sends vulnerable people to prison with serious offenders.
“Studies show the recidivism rate for fine defaulters is very high, with 85 per cent reimprisoned within four years,” he says. Even though debt-defaulters typically spend just a few days in prison, they cost the State huge sums. The Fines Bill, expected to be signed into law in the next few days, should dramatically reduce the number sent to prison for not paying fines.
The Bill provides judges with a new toolkit for dealing with people who can’t or won’t pay fines. They can also set the level of a fine depending on a person’s ability to pay, and enable people to pay a fine through instalments.
The experience of new legislation introduced last year, covering the non-payment of civil debt, suggests a positive outcome from the new Bill is possible.
In the first three months of this year, just three people were committed to prison for not paying a civil debt. In 2008, some 278 people were sent to jail for not paying a civil debt.