ILR’s First Podcast: Dealing with the Reality of the Irish Criminal Justice System
Nov 11th, 2008 by Donagh
Crime and consequences of crime as well as the suitability of the punishment that is meted out to criminals is a subject that is rarely out of the news. The tragic death of Shane Geoghegan at the weekend and the response that it has generated is the most recent example of how both the media and politicians react in order to appear to be empathizing with the revulsion and horror ordinary people feel when they find out that someone like them has been killed accidentally by those who use murder as integral part of their business model.
If Shane Geoghegan had been flattened by an articulated lorry driven by a man out of his head on crystal meth and vodka the revulsion in the local community would have been the same, but the call for action, which plays with the popular sentiment of revenge would not be.
The RTE news talks to people who live in the area where the murder occured or who knew the victim, and broadcasts their anxious calls for legislation to be brought in to ensure that we ‘get the killers’. The Irish Times writes an editorial contextualizing the crime, mentioning the drugs trade, the complicity of ‘white collar professionals’ and calls for greater powers for the Gardai and more legislation.
The supply of drugs invariably involves a growing number of sophisticated weapons. And the eruption of gangland violence becomes inevitable as individuals attempt to dominate the lucrative trade. Recent police activity in Limerick has had a moderating impact on the situation. But 14 deaths in eight years is unacceptable. Official delays in providing for the use of wire-taps in criminal prosecution cases and for the modernisation of Garda interview practices can no longer be tolerated. Such measures are balanced and reasonable. Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern should bring forward legislation as a matter of urgency.
The Irish Times, and indeed the majority of ‘reasonable’ opinion in Ireland on the most populist of subjects may think that such measures are ‘balanced and reasonable’. But will they help? Will they prevent further murders of innocent, and not so innocent, victims of the drugs trade?
Of course what all this editorial rhetoric indicates is that although Ireland’s drug trade has increased and high profile cases like the murder of Geoghegan keep extreme case of criminal activity in the headlines, there is little discussion about the quality and effectiveness of our criminal justice system and how it is crippled by the short term interests of politicians who are a hurry to respond to popular sentiment which is itself heightened by sensationalist media reporting.
That includes all strands of the media. Take the recent example of last Sunday’s Sunday Times article, which was carried on the front page of the Irish edition. It starts with the argument that Ireland’s prison system is operating a ‘revolving door’ policy.
The revolving door of Irish prisons is spinning again. Today we reveal that the system is full, with hundreds of offenders being temporarily released, some having served only half their sentences. There are currently 3,681 prisoners in custody, compared with 3,345 last year. This represents an increase of 65% on the 2,230 inmates incarcerated in December 2006. There are 361 offenders on temporary release, an increase of 172 on last year. The prison service has confirmed that it is operating “at, near or slightly in excess” of capacity.
The loaded use of the phrase ‘revolving door’ provides the linguist leap in the readers imagination to the notion of Irish prison’s as hotels where those who commit crime and cause pain and suffering for ordinary citizen are actually enjoying fresh warm towels, fancy ‘makeovers’ and plasma TVs in their comfortable rooms, all at the taxpayers expense.
It is only further on down the article that it mentions that this overstretch is as a result of a politically driven response to Ireland’s relatively small crime problems by putting more people in jail, often for petty crime or contempt of court issued as a result of an inability to pay bad debts.
…the number of people in Irish prisons has grown 4% per annum over the past 12 years. This puts Ireland in joint-fourth place on the league table of growing prison populations.
Why is that? Fortunately, the Irish Left Review has pulled a bit of a coup on this topic and is able to provide some much needed perspective. Yesterday I published our first podcast which those involved are very proud of. It is an interview with Ireland’s best known progressive criminologist Dr. Paul O’Mahony in which he discusses the Irish criminal justice system, and how Irish politicians and the media respond to it. As Alex Klemm says in her fine introduction:
Prison continues to be the sanction of choice in Ireland, and O’Mahony was scathing about both the overuse and the misuse of imprisonment: he pointed out that many people continue to be imprisoned for minor crimes - including the non-payment of civil debt - and that prison merely perpetuates rather than breaks a vicious circle of criminal behaviour. Certainly, Ireland’s high recidivism rates indicate that non-custodial alternative sanctions need to be examined and promoted.
And in the light of today’s calls for further legislation
O’Mahony pointed out that legislation - much of which is introduced but never used - is drafted in response to media-generated public pressure, while there is little attempt to record and collate the hard statistics which could provide the basis for an evidence-based response to criminal justice issues.
A small note about the podcast itself. It is introduced by Conor putting on what he calls his best Eamonn Dunphy voice. The opening and closing music is from the Great Western Squares.
Hopefully this will be the first of many podcasts, and thanks to Alex and Conor for the effort involved in getting this done.