Public safety primary factor in temporary release, says O'Dea

Judges are not handing out realistic sentences to prisoners, Fine Gael has claimed in the Dáil. Its party's justice spokesman, Mr John Deasy, said the sentences they imposed did not correspond with reality and "that has weakened the criminal justice system".

The Waterford TD said "a life sentence in this country is not a life sentence", but a prisoner would get seven years or more. "Any petty crook sentenced to a year understands that he will not be in jail for a year," but at most seven months.

"Sometimes, I feel we care more about the criminal in this country than we do about the victim," he said during the debate on the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Bill.

Mr Deasy claimed the Bill was really introduced so that the Minister for Justice and the State could avoid civil liability cases against them if a prisoner re-offended while out on temporary release.

He said he was not against temporary release in general but would like to see it "near the end of people's sentences". He believed victims should be notified as a "common courtesy" when an offender is on temporary release and this should be included in the Bill.

The legislation was introduced by the Minister of State for Justice, Mr Willie O'Dea, who said it aimed to set out clearly the criteria for the operation of the temporary release regime.

He said that in January 2000, the High Court decided that there was no power to refuse to consider temporary release for certain categories of offenders because the existing 1960s legislation did not specify that such a power existed.

Mr O'Dea said the Minister for Justice did not intend to reinstate powers to exclude certain categories of prisoners.

There was "always an element of risk in the operation of any system of parole or temporary release" but there had to be a balance and the safety of the public was the primary consideration.

The Bill will also include a provision whereby prisoners who abscond to another jurisdiction will serve the remainder of their sentence in that jurisdiction.

The Minister for Justice retains overall responsibility for deciding whether to grant temporary release. Consideration will be given to the risk of re-offending, the length of sentence served, the potential threat to the security and safety of the public, the prisoner's previous record, the risk of failing to return to prison, conduct in prison and on previous release, reports or recommendations made by people in authority and whether temporary release could speed up re-integration.

Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, said the Minister "is afraid there will be civil and perhaps criminal actions taken against him and the government because of the lack of a proper legislative basis for the release of prisoners".