The social background of many prisoners suggested that the guilty may also be victims themselves, a bishop told members of the legal profession yesterday.
Delivering the homily at a Mass at St Michan's church in Dublin to mark the opening of the new legal year, Bishop Donal Mc Keown, auxiliary Bishop of the diocese of Down and Connor, said it must be worrying for legal practitioners that half the State's prisoners had a history of homelessness and that two-thirds of those had spent time in a psychiatric hospital.
Referring to recently published official figures on the make-up of the prison population, Dr McKeown told members of the judiciary and legal profession that they would be aware of the background of so many who appeared before the courts.
The social background of many of those persons suggested that the guilty may also be in some ways the victims themselves, he said.
Dr McKeown said he was startled by the figures published five weeks ago in a Department of Justice report which suggested that "disadvantaged petty repeat offenders and not just serious criminals make up a significant portion of the prison service".
He was also disturbed by the comment that the juvenile justice system was having "virtually no impact on helping young people escape from a life of crime".
The bishop said there are many ways of viewing law. It could be seen as an administrative tool to support the good management of a given society, while some assumed it was there to vent the wrath of victims on offenders who deserved punishment.
In the perspective of the Old Testament, a quite distinctive view of law appeared which was not just concerned with the smooth running of human affairs and the punishment of offenders.
It was concerned with the creation of society where justice and right order flourished in the interests of human dignity. Laws were not so much sent from on high to be obeyed with scrupulous care and fear but were there so that people might discover their dignity and responsibilities.
