The Gazette 1974

ceremony, as for instance a trial. Therefore, since crimin-

ality is a f undamen t al part of our community it should

be treated, not by isolating the offender from the com-

munity, but by treating him in the community. Thirdly,

our whole concept of criminality seems class based. O u r

prison population is derived almost entirely from the

group of underprivileged

in our

society.

This

does not, of course, mean

that

the

members

of so-called "working class" are more prone to

criminal behaviour than members of the middle classes.

T h e criminal code does, however, reflect the interests of

the middle classes if only because they have had the

power to impose their values and their view of norm-

ality on the whole society. Finally, when we realise that

the police, the legal profession and the courts are almost

entirely institutions of the middle classes, we can under-

stand why so ma ny of our prisoners come f r om the

working class. Fourthly, though it may be necessary to

prevent an offender injuring the community, we must

ensure, at the same time, that he should not be manipu-

lated to conform to the life style of others against his

will.

Offences to be treated within the community

It is, therefore, necessary that as ma ny offenders as

possible should be treated within the community. Only

those who have committed dangerous acts and are

likely to do so again should be imprisoned and only

then in the most h uma ne conditions. T h e aim of the

penal system must be to keep our prisons empty instead

of filling them to capacity. If such a suggestion was

followed only about 5 to 10 per cent of our prisoners

would remain imprisoned. T h e hope would be that in

future even those unfortunates could be treated in the

community. Furthermore, at the moment there are many

people behind bars who are only in prison on remand

awaiting trial. Over 2,000 prisoners were received on

remand in 1971—of these only 800 were later recom-

mitted.

The disadvantages of Bail

T h e law is that an alleged offender

must

be given

bail on certain conditions unless there is a high risk of

not attending the trial. T h e effect of this rule is often

nullified by the fact that the prisoner cannot afford bail

or cannot find sureties to go bail for him. Accordingly,

the

money-

bail

system should be abolished and instead

the judge should be given the power to attach penalties

for failure to reappear. It should also be possible to

devise a system that no prisoner should be kept in jail

while awaiting bail—as one American author has stated

" T h e indignities of regimental living, utter isolation

from the outside world, unsympathetic surveillance,

outrageous visitor facilities, are surely so searing that

one unwarranted day in jail in itself can be a ma j or

social injustice." If we based our criminal law on a

concept of h a rm done to others, such crimes as those

of drunkenness, vagrancy, soliciting, begging, homo-

sexuality between consenting adults, etc., should no

longer be treated as crimes. Prison certainly can-

not rehabilitate alcoholics or drug addicts and will often

have the exact reverse effect on homosexuals.

Alternatives to Prison

Th e re are many different ways of dealing with offen-

ders in the community—some of which have been tried

here and others which have not. T h e Radical Alter-

natives to Prison group (RAP) in England have pub-

lished a pamphlet listing twelve alternatives

including

projects such as '(1) non-residential education

centre

open to offenders and non-offenders alike, (2) the

creation of foster families and family groups for

lonely

offenders, (3) mixed community houses (such as the oH

operated by the Simon Community in Dublin), (4) &

education of young offenders schemes, (5) the provision

of proper treatment facilities in either homes or

resi-

dential communities for drug addicts and alcoholic

(6) the "new careers scheme" which has as its basi

the re-education of professional criminals and

finally

different types of offender-victim projects, and,

already

in use here (7) the Ga r da Juvenile Liaison System which

could be extended. It would, of course, be

obviously

better to prevent as many offenders as possible frofl

being processed by the courts and preventive

measure

such as crisis centres, counselling projects,

community

centres, youth clubs etc. could all have a part to

play

here. An informal process such as the

"Pre

-Courj

Dialogue Scheme" could adequately deal with

many

the petty problems that fill the courts at present.

Even

if the offender

does reach

the court stage, however,

are still left with the alternatives of the probation order»

the fine and the suspended sentence, all three of which

could be extended to work in conjunction with

other alternatives listed.

Probation

Probation has been defined by the Morrisson Cofl

mittee in England as : " The submission of an offender

while at liberty to a specified period of supervision by

a social caseworker who is an officer of the Court"'

during this period the offender remains liable if not

good conduct to be otherwise dealt with by the Court.

This sanction has, the Committee points out, the advan-

tage that while it seeks to protect society through *h

supervision to which the offender is required to subflUjj

it both minimises the restriction placed on him

offers him the help of society in adjusting his condu

to its demands. The Judge can attach conditions to th

order and, therefore, like the suspended sentence it ha

the advantage that it can be adapted to the needs of th

individual offender. Secondly, it costs no more than £

a week to operate. It may surprise ma ny of you to kno^

that at the moment the probation order is only used

1,1

the District Courts—the reason being that there is

110

probation officer attached to the other courts.

Department of Justice has, however, stated it has i*

creased the number of welfare officers to sixty a

presumably some of these will act as probation officer

T h e VERA scheme which originated in New York

which can be used in conjunction with probation, ha

as its basic idea a three-month suspension of trial f°

certain offenders—if everything goes well in that thre

months the slate is wiped clean and the offender cai

make a fresh start. We could also introduce a system

volunteer probation counsellors as in Colorado—ead

offender could be assigned on probation to one of thes

This scheme would have the advantage of not onH

being inexpensive but also involving members of th

comunity in this type of work.

T h e fine is another form of non custodial treatm®

that could be extended. However, at present it op

ates against the interests of the poorer offender vvh0

often goes to jail because he is unable to pay it.

rectify this situation I would suggest that we

i n t r o d u C

the Swedish system of "day fines". This means that th*

fine is calculated not only according to the gravity

130