One in three freed from jail early

FIGURES REVEAL A THIRD OF KERRY’S PRISONERS GET TEMPORARY RELEASE

ONE in three prisoners at Cork Prison are out on the streets on temporary release at any given time according to figures from the Irish Prison Service.

Cork Prison – which is the main remand prison for all men in Kerry sentenced to jail time – had the highest temporary release rate of any men’s prison in the state last year according to the Irish Prison Service’s 2015 Annual Report.

While an average of 218 people were incarcerated in Cork Prison on an average day last year typically another 110 prisoners – a third of those supposed to be imprisoned in Cork – were at liberty having been granted temporary release by prison authorities.

This compares to just 95 of 649 prisoners in Mountjoy and 54 of the 924 prisoners in the Midlands Prison.

The Irish Prison Service says that usually prisoners are given temporary release when they are nearing the end of their sentence and are not serving sentences for violent crimes – for example, murder and rape.

Other criteria for temporary release include the nature of the crime; length of sentence; the potential threat to the public and conduct in custody.

Prisoners committed for non-payment of fines also typically spend only a few hours in prison often without ever seeing the inside of a cell.

Critics of temporary release claim that it is often used in order to lessen the impact of overcrowding in Irish jails.

The Irish Prison Service figures also show that in 2015 Cork Prison was the most overcrowded jail in Ireland, albeit only by an average of around nine prisoners a day.

Earlier this year a new purpose built prison opened in Cork and it is hoped this new €43 million facility – with an operating capacity for 275 prisoners compared to 200 in the old prison building – will greatly reduce overcrowding in the prison and lessen the need for as many prisoners to be granted temporary release before their sentences have expired.

Approximately 200 people from Kerry – 180 men and 20 women – are jailed every year with about 75 per cent sentenced to a year or more.

The Prison Service said the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail last year was just under €70,000 or €5,800 a month.

Given that three quarters of prisoners are serving over a year and the remainder serve an average of six months that would equate to a taxpayer bill of €12.2 million to jail Kerry’s prisoners last year.