The Gazette 1974

lished a pamphlet listing twelve alternatives including projects such as '(1) non-residential education centre 8 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 e 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 8 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 1 being processed by the courts and preventive measure 8 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 1 ' 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 01 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 e 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 ct to its demands. The Judge can attach conditions to th e order and, therefore, like the suspended sentence it ha 5 the advantage that it can be adapted to the needs of th e 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* 1 ' creased the number of welfare officers to sixty a 11 presumably some of these will act as probation officer 8 - T h e VERA scheme which originated in New York which can be used in conjunction with probation, ha s as its basic idea a three-month suspension of trial f° r certain offenders—if everything goes well in that thre e months the slate is wiped clean and the offender cai 1 make a fresh start. We could also introduce a system volunteer probation counsellors as in Colorado—ead 1 offender could be assigned on probation to one of thes e ' This scheme would have the advantage of not onH being inexpensive but also involving members of th c comunity in this type of work. T h e fine is another form of non custodial treatm® 11 ' that could be extended. However, at present it op er ' 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 e the Swedish system of "day fines". This means that th* fine is calculated not only according to the gravity 0

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-

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