The Republic has a heavy reliance on prisons to deal with crime compared with other European countries, according to Dr Barry Vaughan, researcher with the Irish Penal Reform Trust.
Dr Vaughan, addressing a conference on penal policy organised by the trust, said when the number of people committed to prison was compared with the crime rate, the Republic had a higher rate than other European states, including Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.
"The punitiveness of a country is usually measured by looking at the number of prisoners held per head of population and on these figures Ireland appears low: 68 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. However, it makes more sense to measure the level of imprisonment against the crime rate. When this is done, Ireland's heavy reliance on prison becomes evident," Dr Vaughan said.
The role imprisonment played in the penal system should be diminished. He said this could be done by putting an end to three-month sentences of imprisonment, save in exceptional circumstances; imposing fines related to an offender's ability to pay; providing an assessment of an offender upon entering prison and developing a sentence plan to continue both inside and outside prison; providing open prisons, and reforming the probation services.
He said building more prisons was the latest strategy designed to address the increasing number of people entering prison. A previous strategy included increasing the flow through prisons by shortening the time there. "This has led to what has been called the revolving-door system where by prisoners are abruptly released, with little preparation, aftercare provision or supervision."
Increasing the number of prisoners to a cell had also done little to address the pressure on prison places. "Ireland has experimented with penal expansion in the past and it has had a negligible effect on the crime rate. This should be borne in mind when claims are made being made about the current effect of prisons upon the crime rate.
"Instead, when seeking an explanation for fluctuations in crime, many people might concur with Bill Clinton's campaign slogan: `It's the economy, stupid'."
The Penal Reform Trust has said it is opposed to building 700 additional prison places, which was announced last week by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue. "It has been proven internationally that building more prisons increases crime rather than reducing crime," Dr Valerie Bresnihan, chairwoman of the trust, said.