Prison numbers tumble

And figures show you are more likely to be jailed if from Limerick

PEOPLE from Limerick are more than times more likely to go to prison than people in Leitrim, an analysis of prison records has shown.

New figures show how a total of 7,484 people were committed to prison during 2017, a dramatic fall on previous years.

The number of people being sent to jail plummeted in 2017 as new legislation meant far fewer people went to prison for non-payment of fines. A county-by-county analysis of committals shows that Limerick had by far the highest imprisonment rate with 237 incarcerated per 100,000 of population. By comparison, the rate in two other counties was a quarter of that, with 60 per 100,000 people imprisoned in Donegal and just 59 in Leitrim.

The number of people committed to prison from some counties is remarkably low with just 19 people with a Leitrim address jailed last year. For Sligo and Roscommon, it was just 48.

Counties with comparatively high rates of imprisonment included Dublin where the committal rate was 185 for every 100,000 residents.

Altogether, 2,490 people – who had given an address in the capital – were sent to jail, with around 15% of that total made up of women. The rate in Co. Cork was below the national average at 133 people imprisoned for every 100,000 people.

The national average worked out at 141 per 100,000 when people with no fixed abode and living outside the state were excluded.

Of all of those imprisoned, 1,081 of them were women and 6,403 were men, according to figures from the Irish Prison Service.

The dramatic fall in the number of people committed to prison last year has been welcomed by the Irish Prison Service. A spokesman said: ‘Figures for 2017 show the fines committal figure for [the year]… is 2,262, a percentage drop of 73% on the 2016 figure of 8,439 and a 77% [reduction] on the 2015 figure of 9,883. The Irish Prison Service welcomes the reduction in committals as it has resulted in a significant saving in “man hours” which would have been spent processing these persons.’

Sources said the benefits were not just being felt in the prison service but also by gardaí and the courts where bureaucracy had been cut down.