Electronic tagging not the answer for low-risk offenders
Issued : Monday 17 January, 2005
Statement by Joe Costello TD
Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Trade and Development
The Labour Party’s Justice Spokesperson, Joe Costello has called on Minister Michael McDowell to clarify his plans to introduce electronic tagging for certain offenders. He said that tagging is not the answer for low-risk offenders who would not ordinarily face jail.
“The Minister is talking about tagging to ease pressure on our prisons. This is the same Minister who has already closed three prisons at Shanganagh, Spike Island and the Curragh. Now he wants to open a new prison but he should never have closed the three closed prisons in the first place. This is typical of the Minister’s incoherence on prisons policy.
“I agree with the Irish Penal Reform Trust that tagging should not be used for offenders who would not normally receive a custodial sentence. Whereas there might be a case for tagging of more serious offenders, such as those found guilty of serious sexual offences (though of course not as an alternative to jail), it would seem strange to tag anyone found guilty of relatively minor public order offences, for example.
“Many of the offenders concerned would be teenagers and young offenders who would be better targeted with greater investment in the resourcing and personnel of the Juvenile Liaison Scheme and in community service.
“The Minister’s prisons policy is all over the place. Closing prisons one day, opening them the next. He has still not published the 2003 Annual Report of the Inspector of Prisons and seems intent on eventually privatising prisons, which would be totally unacceptable to the Labour Party”, he added.
