I was driving home yesterday listening to Today FM and heard that prisons in the Republic of Ireland are grossly over crowded at the moment and yet some unfortunate people are being incarcerated for non-payment of small fines (as low as €50 according to one contributor). Surely there must be a better way to "punish" people who commit small crimes (e.g. some form of community service)?
So first I looked up what the current prison occupancy rates in Ireland and then started comparing to other counties and this is what I found so far:
- Since 1995 the prison population rate in Ireland has grown from 57 per 100,000 of national population to 78 per 100,000 of national population in 2006. It increased by 11% in 2008 which would roughly bring Ireland up to just under the 86 per 100,000 level.
- In 2005 the average cost of keeping an individual in custody in Ireland for one year was €90,000 and in 2008 this figure had not changed very much at around €92,000.
- In 2008 there was a considerable increase in the numbers committed for non-payment of court fines (88.7% increase growing to 2,520). Based on the €92k figure above the cost to the taxpayer would have been €4.5 million per week.
- Finland has a prison population rate of 75 per 100,000 of national population.
- Germany has a prison population rate of 95 per 100,000 of national population.
- Surprisingly, Canada has a prison population rate of 107 per 100,000 of national population.
- In the UK in 2006 an average of 148 people in every 100,000 were in prison. England and Wales has one of the highest rates of incarceration in Europe.
- But compared to rates in the USA Ireland has a much lower incarceration rate (see graph above)
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