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PAYMENTS THAT ARE given to prisoners to incentivise good behaviour – are coming under fire today.
AdVIC, the advocacy group for families of victims of homicide, is criticising the Irish Prison Service for its policy of providing these payments.
The Irish Prison Service told TheJournal.ie that the objective of the incentivised regimes is, “to provide tangible incentives to prisoners to participate in structured activities and to reinforce incentives for good behaviour, leading to a safer and more secure environment”.
The criticism comes after reports that €3.8 million has been given to detainees of the State’s fourteen prison’s since 2009.
AdVIC is arguing that this is unfair, considering that only €25,000 is provided annually for bereavement counselling for families of victims of homicide.
John Whelan, AdVIC chairman, said:
It is absolutely astounding that we are paying criminals to behave well, when the State does not provide adequate services to victims such as bereavement counselling for families of victims of homicide.
“We have a criminal justice system that is completely balanced in favour of criminals. Not only are prisoners’ sentences automatically reduced by a quarter before they even step foot in a prison due to remission, now it turns out the State is giving them money for things like sweets.”
The prison service says, “gratuity allows prisoners to purchase items from the prison tuck shop during their sentence and/or to save money which may be transferred to family members during sentence or be used to assist reintegration on release.
Some prisoners are dependent on the gratuity while in prison either because their families are not in a position to support them financially or because they have no external family support.
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Prisoners should be given a hot meal and a blanket if they behave themselves. ..
There’s a good fella you haven’t murdered anyone in 2 days here’s 20 euro …… Bollocks to that, I never killed anyone where’s my good behaviour payment …… SHOW ME THE MONEY !!!
Exactly they shouldn’t be rewarded for anything. They’re in there for a reason.
20 euro a month for not killing someone.
240 a year multiplied by 18 is about 4300 euro.
I look forward to my payment shorty
They should be put making something that would benefit society. Roadsigns, wheelchairs, hospital beds and the like. At least when they get out they might have a skill that would earn them a crust. This money for nothing lark is nonsense.
Seriously people the amount of money that is spent on prisoners is unbelievable…
1.. Gratuity (money payed to prisoners while in prison)
2.. Free phone calls
3.. Free post
4.. Free food
5.. Free bed
6.. Free doctors/nurses
7.. Free medication
8.. Free trips out
9.. Free clothes
10. Free toothpaste/soap/shampoo
11. Free t.v
The prisoners in this country are better treated than our old aged pensioners. They have all of their rights but they don’t have to take any responsibilities for what they do. Queue the do gooders…. Ah but they don’t have their freedom… So before we hear that argument could you ask yourself one question…. Why don’t they have their freedom?
Free education as well…and with the cost of going back to do leaving cert/and the odd degree, that’s already a few thousand.
The biggest mistake the ordinary person makes in this country is calling it a criminal justice system. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a criminal legal system. There is no justice, only a right or a wrong of legal argument.
Ridiculous idea – paying money to reward normal behaviour. Is prison itself not supposed to be the rehabilitation – if so, the payment of reward money is surely tacit acknowledgement that it doesn’t work.
If,on the other hand, prison is supposed to be a punishment or deterrent then why would you want to reward someone for being there?
They are in there not because they were model people they are in there because they committed a crime, They should get nothing except the basics to stay alive, no TV, internet, gym, etc What do the victims get nothing except trying to live with what was done to them, It’s not up to the prisons to rehabilitate them it up to the prisons to keep them in there until they serve their time, I agree with Tom Reed on this.
Crime doesn’t pay!
The only justice in this country is if you dish it out yourself
The guy in the pictures arms will be stuck in the gate until his cuffs are off
Dylan do you like guys being handcuffed ?
Bring back the chain gang. Bring them out and make them work everyday of their sentence. Make them earn the money they get. There are plenty of walls to be cleaned of graffiti. Plenty of parks to be cleaned. The prisons in this country too soft. Prison should be a place where you dread not to go into to, not shrug your shoulders and say feck it shur il meet up with the boys inside. Time this country woke up. And the faster the better.
” only €25,000 is provided annually for bereavement counselling for families of victims of homicide.”
Which is a disgrace, but it’s a separate issue to subsistence for prisoners.
People often get doing something for victims confused with sadism towards prisoners. Would you rather they left prison without a cent to their names? How do you think that would work out?
They can go to a hostel. If they commit a crime when they’re out then they go back in. They should learn their lesson the first time. I don’t see why they should be given anything. They don’t deserve it.
They should earn money by working e.g. picking up litter.
They shouldnt earn money just because they dont get in fights all the time.
I dont think anyone would begrudge them getting some money if they actually worked for it
Voodoo,
I think most people would agree with providing some form of rehabilitation for criminals in order that they do not go and commit crime again.
And you’re right in that the lack of support for victims is a separate issue.
But to getting paid to be normal is something everyone would say is beyond the pale. It should be about correcting behaviour not simply dangling a carrot in front of someone and hope that they will change because of it.
And you also have to take into account the context in which victim support and payments to criminals is been looked at. That context is one in which there is overwhelming support for the criminal and piece meal for the victim. The extremes of inequality that exist now between the two is just too much for people to tolerate. Your asking people to separate victims and sadism for prisoners where they see nothing for the victim to separate from.
We not alone pay for their good behaviour in prison — we even elect them as politicians and Lord Mayors. It’s the Irish way, in most countries people resign when caught committing a crime while they are an elected official. O Snoddy will probably end up as a minister.
You do realise the people that came up with this initiative are people who work in the prison service and would have a more educated idea at what is best for the prison system, rather than most of the muppets that comment here. Only a guess but perhaps it makes the prison system run more smootly, less violence, less disruptive behaviour etc. Which in turn brings down the cost of running the prison system. They’re not offering this from the kindness of their hearts.
well seriously i dont know where your heads at t come up with a comment like that,,what i took from that is that there r prison officers being paid to do a job ,, n now they want to pay the prisoners to make that job easier,, yet the people that are serving time in these places deserve to be in there because they did something wrong,,we need t seriously get our country in order,, if this is and does happens they gonna need more prison because it looks like people would be better off,, roof over your head tv internet , mail, laundry, electricity, warm bed n get paid for nothin,, what about the cretters sleepin in doorways in cardboard boxes,, would they be better off comittin crimes n gettin sent down ,, looks that way,, world is badly divided,, so basically to have a mid way decent life in ireland ye either need t be a politition or a criminal(which is basically the same anyway),, no wonder d rest o d world call us paddys,, we really do look stupid
Mary, I can tell you don’t work in a prison. You’ve an innocence about you if you believe that’s how the system works.
Ask any prison officer how the system can be improved and they’ll tell you a half dozen ideas off the bat. But they don’t get implemented. It’s that same for the Gardai. Ask any Garda and they’d tell you straight out what’s wrong with the system and what would work. The point is, when your the one at the coal face, you don’t get to decide anything…even the common-sense stuff.
So crime does pay?
And it pays well with its rewards.
That girl who had her rights trampled over by the state gets the princely sum of €19.10 a week in the Direct Provision centre. Criminals seem to get more than she does. Unbelievable!
These people are not forced to do anything for money,yet people on the dole are forced onto jobs bridge for a scaby 20 euro that won’t even cover their food and travel and if the refuse they will have their dole cut or stopped completely, justice my arse!
If ur a Rat dey pay more’
have your say