The Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System, chaired by Dr. T. K. Whitaker, interpreted as its remit to consider solutions to the following major problems: (i) the growth in crime and the demand for prison accommodation; (ii) the shortcomings in the facilities and services for prisoners; (iii) the inadequacy and unsuitability of much of the present prison accommodation; (iv) unsatisfactory relations between the Department of Justice, prison managements and staff and (v) the escalating costs of providing and maintaining prisons and places of detention. It is not generally realised that the remit was as wide as this and that in consequence the report covers a broad spectrum of advice and recommendations.
The report suggested, first, that the growth in crime and in the demand for prison accommodation could be dealt with effectively only by preventing and curbing crime, confining the penalty of imprisonment to more appropriate cases and, reducing the length of stay in prison. On preventing and curbing crime the report suggested that parents, teachers, the churches, voluntary groups and the State all have a role to play in reducing the incidence of crime. It said that most crime originated among unemployed youth in disadvantaged urban areas and called on the State to give priority attention to the problems of such areas and their communities.
It called also for greater watchfulness and a more caring attitude on the part of the community. Greater watchfulness entailed individuals and businesses doing more to safeguard their own property, local communities co-operating with the Garda Síochána in neighbourhood watch schemes and similar measures, and more effective education, particularly of the young, on the dangers of abuse of alcohol and drugs. A more caring attitude by the community involved parents being more concerned to discharge their duty for the care and upbringing of children, adoption of the principles of the Task Force on Child Care and Costello report, especially as regards the establishment of a national youth service, voluntary and local initiatives to help the young control their aggressiveness and thirst for excitement and to develop their full potential as members of society, better provision for the homeless, better provision for the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse, development of the juvenile liaison scheme operated by the Garda Síochána and full use of cautioning procedures and non-punitive responses to unlawful conduct.
It will be clear to the House that what was advocated in the Whitaker report on this single aspect of the terms of reference represents a very wide prescription indeed. I doubt if anyone could object to the general thrust of that prescription. In reality policies which have been pursued in recent years are in line with the prescription, for example, the wider development of neighbourhood watch type schemes, greater concentration on education for drug and alcohol abuse, the development of the juvenile liaison scheme, the identification of problem areas and what needs to be done about them and so on. I fully endorse the approach of the Whitaker report in its recommendations for controlling crime and consequently reducing the demand for prison accommodation, and intend to continue to advocate that approach as opportunity offers and as far as resources permit.
The next element considered by the Whitaker Committee was the question of restricting the penalty of imprisonment. It recommended that imprisonment should be used only as a last resort and that an extensive range of alternatives should be available to the courts. It advocated that normally a sentence of imprisonment should be imposed only after consideration of a full personal report on the offender from the Probation and Welfare Service, supplemented where appropriate by a psychological and medical/psychiatric report. The effect of operating these principles would be to reserve imprisonment for serious offences against the person and major property offences. It is, by now, well established official policy to advocate the use of imprisonment only as a last resort and the use of alternative community-based sanctions as far as possible.