Justice, Community Safety and the Drugs Crisis

May 14, 2007

Justice and Community Safety

Sinn Féin believes that every person has the equal right to safety at home and in our communities. Everyone also has the right to a fully accountable policing service, imbued with a human rights ethos, and to a justice system in which they can have confidence. Yet the working class communities hit hardest by certain kinds of crime lack the levels and modes of policing and other services that would deter crime and other anti-social behaviour. Many have lost faith in the policing and justice system.

The current coalition's record on justice and community safety has been woeful. They introduced gimmicky Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) and the Garda Reserve to cover their refusal to concentrate policing resources where they are needed most.

The Justice Minister is more interested in getting private developers to build an unnecessary super-prison than in ensuring that the Probation Service has adequate resources. He has ignored the recommendation of the Comptroller and Auditor General which concluded that community service orders have a more positive impact on rates of re-offending than prison and cost about one-third of custodial sentence. Domestic violence and sexual abuse are pervasive crimes they have never strategically or comprehensively addressed in crime policy. Instead they starved frontline victims' services of funding. The system is failing these people: the number of these cases coming before the courts in this State is the lowest among 20 European countries, and we have a conviction rate of just 5%.

The current Government refuses to acknowledge the true extent of Garda corruption and the culture of cover-up that prevails in the force. They failed to act in a meaningful way on the findings and recommendations of the five Morris Tribunal reports.

Successive Irish Governments presided over by all the establishment parties have failed to make communities safe or produce a coherent and robust approach to prevent crime before it happens.

All parties claim to be tough on crime. Sinn Féin has the only credible plan for crime prevention, community safety and fully accountable policing.

The Sinn Féin Platform for Community Safety

Sinn Féin believes that the most effective crime policies focus on prevention. This means intensive and systematic social investment in marginalised areas. It means providing intervention and support services for individuals and families at risk. It means accountable community policing. It means effective rehabilitation programmes for prisoners and other offenders, and comprehensive post-release community supervision. We are committed to deliver these as a matter of priority.

We believe that for most non-violent offences, community restorative justice alternatives can be more effective than custody, for both victim and offender. Sinn Féin justice policy will be more effective socially, and it also makes better economic sense - reducing both the incidence of crime and the high cost of incarceration.

We want real justice for victims, stronger action on domestic and sexual violence, an effective approach to anti-social behaviour and effective sentencing reform. We will also regulate the legal profession and increase access to legal representation.

We are working towards the establishment of an all-Ireland policing service. In the interim, we are proposing fundamental Garda reform consistent with the Patten model in the 6 Counties to end corruption and misconduct, establish genuine accountability, and imbed a human rights and public service ethos. While recently introduced Government reforms including the Joint Policing Committees fall short of our proposals, Sinn Féin will work with them - to tackle in particular anti-social behaviour, illegal drug empires and unequal access to policing. We will repeal draconian legislation such as the Offences Against the State Acts.

The Sinn Féin Record in Leinster House:

• Our Dáil Team sought major changes to the Garda Síochána Bill, tabling nearly 150 amendments, and secured mandatory introduction of a Garda Code of Ethics. We proposed the introduction of Community Policing Partnerships at the district level. We secured the support of TDs from all opposition parties for our amendment calling for the establishment of a single Garda Ombudsman.
• We demanded the ring-fencing of confiscated CAB monies for community development.
• We proposed major changes to the Criminal Justice Bill 2004, tabling more than 175 amendments. We opposed unaccountable Garda powers, the introduction of ASBOs and the rollback on child protections commitments contained in the Children's Act 2001.
• We opposed the introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill 2007. We tabled 90 amendments proposing more effective ways of tackling serious crime.
• We successfully amended the Criminal Justice Bill 2004 to ensure that the Criminal Law Codification Advisory Committee includes human rights expertise.
• We were the only party to call annually on the Government to schedule a Dáil debate on the need to confront crimes of domestic and sexual violence against women. We tabled the motion that prompted the only domestic violence debate to take place in the Dáil during the whole term of this Government.
• We published the Offences Against the State Acts Repeal Bill to strike down repressive emergency legislation, as recommended by the UN Human Rights Committee.

Sinn Féin Priorities in Government:

Crime Prevention

• Develop and fund a comprehensive Crime Prevention Strategy.
• Increase and accelerate social investment in marginalised areas.
• Ring-fence CAB-confiscated monies for a Community Development Fund additional to any Government funding commitments.

Garda Reform for Fully Accountable Policing

• Reverse the culture of misconduct and cover-up through genuine and extensive Garda reform consistent with the Patten model, including:

• - accountability mechanisms
• - a fully independent Garda Ombudsman to investigate Garda misconduct
• - a Garda Board for civilian management oversight and
• - Community Policing Partnerships at District level for policing fully accountable to the local communities served.

• Comprehensively review Garda deployment and redeploy Garda Special Branch detectives into serious crime units.
• Civilianise appropriate tasks including many administrative duties and the traffic corps, to allow the redeployment of all fully trained Gardaí to fight crime and serve their communities.
• Keep the Garda service routinely unarmed. Review and improve the inadequate training delivered to Gardaí bearing weapons.

Sentencing Reform

• Introduce increased transparency in sentencing and sentencing guidelines to ensure consistency, supported by a training programme for the judiciary.

Real Justice for Victims and the Community

• Establish Community Restorative Justice and Community Mediation programmes in every county and major urban centre. Ring-fence fines collected from offenders to part-finance these programmes.
• Legislate to encourage direct victim restitution where appropriate.
• Establish a system of consistent victim liaison to ensure that victims, especially of violent crimes, are kept fully informed throughout the investigation and prosecution process.
• Legally recognise the right to access justice and the right to legal representation, and expand the fund for Civil Legal Aid accordingly. Introduce Legal Aid reforms in keeping with recommendations by the Free Legal Advice Centres, to enable more people to challenge violations of their economic and social rights.

Stronger Action against Domestic and Sexual Violence

• Ensure more consistent prosecution of sexual assault, rape and domestic violence, coupled with priority access to free legal advice for victims and training for judges to ensure more appropriate sentencing outcomes.
• Introduce a support system to encourage victims to report crimes.
• Offer victims adequate opportunities for support in recovering from these devastating crimes.

An Effective Approach to Anti-Social Behaviour

• Adopt a sensible comprehensive strategy to effectively combat anti-social behaviour, including:
• - intensive and systematic social investment in marginalised areas
• - early intervention and support services for those at risk of offending
• - accountable community policing
• - effective rehabilitation programmes and post-release supervision and
• - community restorative justice alternatives for most non-violent offenders.
• - Ensure robust enforcement of the law and prosecution of offenders involved in criminal behaviour.
• - Fully implement the Children's Act 2001.

Enhancing Rehabilitative Supports and Prison Reform

• Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture allowing for independent inspection of places of custody and produce a timetabled plan to implement all recommendations of the European Committee Against Torture regarding conditions in places of custody.
• Fully resource the statutory Prison Inspector, introduce an Ombudsman for Prisoners and extend the Children's Ombudsman's remit to include children in detention.
• Increase funding to Probation Service and to prevention and rehabilitation.
• Establish an adequate number of mental health centres with appropriate levels of security to ensure an end to the practice of people with mental illness and disabilities in prisons where appropriate services are not available.
• Stop the construction of super-prisons.
• End the practice of immigration-related detention.

Regulating the Legal Profession

• Introduce an independent body to monitor and hold the legal profession to account.

Repealing Repressive Legislation and Dissolving the Special Criminal Court

• Repeal the Offences Against the State Acts and dissolve the Special Criminal Court as recommended by the UN Human Rights Commission.
• Re-introduce the right to silence.

Establishing an All-Ireland System of Policing and Justice

• Work towards the establishment of an all-Ireland policing service.
• Continue to negotiate the establishment of an effective all-Ireland sex offenders registry.
• Establish an all-Ireland missing persons helpline which will be adequately resourced, properly run and widely advertised.
• Work constructively with 6 Counties counterpart in the All-Ireland Ministerial Council following the repatriation of policing and justice powers.
• Establish a new Implementation Body on Justice and Policing under the Good Friday Agreement.
• Reducing Harm from Drugs

Sinn Féin believes that everyone should have the right to be protected from the harmful effects of legal and illegal drugs and associated crime. Everyone should be able to grow up in communities free from poverty, social exclusion and inequality, which are significant factors influencing drug misuse.

Alcohol overuse ravages our society. Rates of addiction to prescription drugs, and solvent usage by young people have never been higher. The unprecedented availability and usage of illegal drugs including heroin, cocaine and now crack cocaine continues to wreck individual lives, families and communities. Drug dealers have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children throughout the towns and cities of Ireland, and their trade has ravaged entire working-class communities. More recently, gangland shootings have significantly increased due to turf wars for control of this highly lucrative industry.

While many drug users seek treatment, they must either wait months or travel long distances. Often, the treatment they need is not available to them at all. While there are an estimated 13,000 heroin users in Dublin alone, there are only an estimated 22 detoxification beds in the State. Currently there are no methadone clinics in Cork or Limerick which means opiate users there must travel to Dublin for this treatment. Many women who need drug treatment services still do not access them for fear of their children being taken from them by the authorities or because the existing services are not family-friendly.

Sinn Féin has an unrivalled track record of standing and working with communities, particularly against the illegal drugs trade. We are committed to expand on this work in Government by mounting an effective nation-wide campaign to reduce the harm done to our nation by legal and illegal drugs and to dry up business for the illegal drugs trade.

The Sinn Féin Platform for Confronting the Drugs Crisis

Sinn Féin proposes to take a more serious approach to the drugs crisis than any previous Irish Government. We will dedicate a Minister of State with sole responsibility for pursuing the objectives of the National Drugs Strategy, for fully funding the necessary prevention, education and treatment programmes, and for co-ordinating enforcement action against the illegal drugs trade on an all-Ireland basis.

We propose social investment in vulnerable communities as a preventative measure. We will significantly expand the availability of full-spectrum drug treatment services including effective harm-reduction measures and eliminate treatment waiting lists, so that all drug users can get the services and supports they need.

We will introduce structures to enhance community co-operation with the Gardaí in enforcement against drugs traffickers and barons, and to hold the Gardaí accountable for their action or inaction in this area.

The Sinn Féin Record in Leinster House:

• Our Dáil Team sponsored the only debate on the drugs crisis during the last Dáil, which amongst other things called for increased resources to implement the National Drugs Strategy, eliminate treatment waiting lists, address alarming rates of illegal drug dealing, tackle poverty and educational issues and support communities in their fight against cocaine and heroin.
• We successfully pressured the Irish Government to release funding for cocaine treatment projects.
• We urged the Minister responsible for the National Drugs Strategy to rollout the successful non-Garda Dial to Stop Drug Dealing Campaign piloted in Blanchardstown throughout the State.

Sinn Féin Priorities in Government:

A Serious Approach to the Drugs Crisis

• Appoint a Minister of State with sole responsibility for drugs issues.
• Make adequate budgets available for both Local Drugs Task Forces and Rural Drugs Task Forces.
• Use an all-Ireland approach to ensure the application of the strategic objectives of the National Drugs Strategy to the island as a whole.
• Immediately formulate, resource and implement an All-Ireland Action Plan to Combat Cocaine Use and roll out cocaine treatment projects.
• Establish widespread and well-resourced drugs education programmes and awareness campaigns for children and parents, based on international best practice models proven effective, in schools and in the community.
• Target the causes of problematic drug use and the rise of the illegal drugs trade by working for the elimination of poverty and inequality in this State, including educational disadvantage. Immediately expand the Early Start programme to cover all RAPID and CLÁR areas.
• Provide substantial funding to set up alcohol and drug-free social environments, such as late opening cafés, aimed at teenagers.
• Fully resource provision of local sports facilities and amenities that are both accessible and affordable to everyone in a local community.
• Continue to work directly to problem-solve with families and communities worst-affected by drug and alcohol use and by the illegal drugs trade.

Significant Expansion of Full-Spectrum Treatment

• Commit adequate funding to significantly expand the availability of drug treatment and to eliminate waiting lists for treatment.
• Expand the spectrum of services available so that all drug users who want to avail of treatment and other services can do so.
• Make additional funds available for the development of local full-spectrum drug services.
• Ensure that all prisoners who need drug treatment can avail of it while serving sentences, and increase diversion of offenders into drug treatment programmes where appropriate in order to reduce drug-related repeat offending.
• Fund sufficient residential drug treatment places for women(alone, or with children).
• Provide additional supports for the families of drug users, such as grandparents caring for grandchildren.

Effective Harm Reduction Measures

• Expand needle exchange programmes to reduce the risk of HIV and hepatitis C infection, including in Irish prisons.
• Ensure methadone treatment to reduce injection behaviour and offending behaviour and to stabilise people in education or employment, is equally available no matter where the user lives.

More Effective Enforcement against Drug Traffickers and Barons

• Continue to pursue major drug traffickers and allocate funds seized from them by the Criminal Assets Bureau for community development in those neighbourhoods worst affected by the illegal drugs trade.
• Increase the resources available to An Garda Síochána Drugs Units and introduce local Garda accountability structures at District level such as Community Policing Partnerships.
• Divert resources from the Special Branch to allow An Garda Síochána to target drug dealers instead of harassing community activists attempting to protect their children and their areas from the illegal drugs trade.