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CBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Will Marine Atlantic's commercial rate not being cut impact people in N.L.? Not much, says this trucker
While passengers riding the Marine Atlantic ferry will see a 50 per cent reduction in the cost of their ticket, commercial passengers and truckers won't see that same benefit. And while Newfoundland and Labrador's Minister of Jobs says it puts the province at a severe trade disadvantage, one trucker says it likely won't make much of a difference. "It was no big surprise, really. And it ain't going to impact the everyday lives of people here very much anyway, even if they're reduced," Tony Power, owner of operator of Power Trucking in Holyrood, told CBC News of the decision to not cut commercial rates for Marine Atlantic ferries. He pays $735 for a one way trip for his 75-foot truck. "If I reduce the rate to [merchants] for the ferry, they ain't going to take it off for the province anyway. There's just corporate greed across the board." Other ferries in Atlantic Canada and Quebec saw both commercial and passenger rates slashed in a decision by Prime Minister Mark Carney. Asked by CBC News why the change didn't apply to Marine Atlantic, St. John's East MP Joanne Thompson said rates needed to be frozen to protect other merchants in the industry. "Marine Atlantic is part of a broader chain of suppliers that bring commercial product in and out of the province. And we need to protect all players in the field, because we rely on the transfer of products from multiple sources," Thompson said. In response, Newfoundland and Labrador Jobs Minister Gerry Byrne said not lowering commercial rates goes against the announcement being a way to improve interprovincial trade efforts. "[Other Atlantic provinces] now have a very, very large competitive advantage over Newfoundland and Labrador in exports, in free trade, in competitiveness. Our economy now just took a blow," Byrne told CBC Radio Thursday. More passengers, delayed shipments? Power said he sided with Thompson's comments. He noted that if rates were to drop for travel on Marine Atlantic, other transporters would have to get the same cut and disrupt the overall market. But although he believes rates not being cut won't affect the price of food on the shelves, it could affect when it gets there — as a likely increase in passenger traffic could lead to less space being available for commercial trucks. "You're going to have less trucks per vessel," he said. "Those trucks that were there Tuesday for the [dangerous goods] crossing got to sit there 'till Wednesday. So, like, they got an extra two days on the wharf, which is delaying their products. It all got to come to the island, we got very few options to get to Newfoundland … that traffic got to come across that water." Power also expressed concerns with loosening interprovincial trade barriers, saying he believes it would impact the ability for local companies to prosper with business coming in from elsewhere.


Irish Post
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Post
Ireland's prisons are reaching breaking point
OVERCROWDING in Irish prisons is spiralling out of control, in what experts are calling a national 'crisis'. With facilities operating at nearly 120% capacity, over 400 inmates are currently sleeping on floors. This mirrors a broader trend across Europe, where the prison population grew by almost 4% in 2023 alone. Tougher sentencing laws and years of underinvestment in prison infrastructure have all added to the problems facing the prison service today. While the government has announced plans to build 1,500 additional spaces, insiders and unions warn that construction delays and rising inmate numbers mean this alone won't solve the problem. 'The system is beyond stretched. Staff shouldn't be working in these conditions,' said Irish Prison Officers Association President Tony Power, who has called for urgent investment in current facilities. Rehabilitation services are also suffering. Nearly 2,000 inmates are waiting for access to psychological care, addiction treatment, education, and vocational training. The Director General of the Irish Prison Service, Caron McCaffrey, acknowledged that some prisoners are released before receiving essential support and urged for a coordinated government response to boost in-prison services. In an effort to manage numbers, the Prison Service has expanded its temporary release programme for non-violent offenders. While controversial, officials argue it is a necessary safety measure. Critics, however, view it as a short-term fix that fails to address systemic problems. Professor Tom O'Malley SC, a leading authority on sentencing law, suggests that courts could consider reduced sentences as a form of judicial accountability - a practice already used in Britain during the COVID pandemic. Prisons are facing new and complex security threats as well. Criminals are using high-tech drones to smuggle drugs and phones into Irish prisons, taking advantage of a lack of aerial surveillance due to aviation regulations. Other European nations are also grappling with similar problems. French prisons reached record high in population figures this year, with thousands sleeping on the floor. In contrast, Spain has adopted a more rehabilitative model with promising results - 80% of released prisoners there do not reoffend. The Irish Penal Reform Trust has urged the government to treat imprisonment as a last resort, advocating instead for alternatives like community service and supervised release. With violence and deaths in custody rising, experts warn that the system is drifting away from its purpose to correct and rehabilitate people for a productive life in a peaceful society. See More: Caron McCaffrey, Irish Prison Service, Overcrowding, Prison

The Journal
22-06-2025
- Politics
- The Journal
How does Ireland's prison overcrowding crisis compare to other European countries?
EUROPE'S PRISON POPULATION is increasing, with many countries around the continent, including Ireland, experience dangerous levels of overcrowding. According to analysis of the latest data from Eurostat, Europe's central statistics database, there was a 3.2% increase in the continent's prison population in 2023. That year, 13 countries in Europe were experiencing overcrowding. Very high levels of incarcerations were also recorded between 1993 and 2023. In Ireland, where prison capacity on Friday was recorded at a level of 117% , the issue with overcrowding has been deemed a crisis by legal experts, staff unions and senior sources within the Irish penal system. An increase in the number of judges , changes to legislation and sentencing guidelines, as well as underinvestment into the prison estate in the country have been contributing factors to the crisis. The Eurostat data shows, however, that this trend has been occurring across EU member states over a 30-year period. At its peak in 2012, prisons in Europe were accommodating 533,000 people. Government has initiated an expansion plan for the construction of 1,500 new places – but industry associations like the Irish Prison Officers Association believe that 'building out' of the problem is not the solution. Speaking at an event in May, President of the association Tony Power said that investments must be made into the existing system to provide more spaces. Staff should not be 'expected' to work in overcrowded conditions, he added. Mattresses on the floor in Europe Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan has pledged to find ways to accelerate the delivery of more prison spaces . Advertisement A senior source at the service previously told The Journal that building more spaces, given the timescale involved in capital projects, is not seen as an option. This has led to an increase in the number of people sleeping on the floor in Irish facilities , something the Irish Penal Reform Trust deeply condemns. These figures are so high that the service started recording them in official daily statistics this year. On Friday, 404 people were sleeping on mattresses the ground in Irish prisons. French prison population levels reached record highs in March as a total of 82,152 people – roughly the same size of a full house at Croke Park – were in custody in French prisons that month. The official capacity is 62,539. More than 4,500 people were sleeping on the floor at French facilities – 15 of which are at 200% capacity. Deportations and releases France's Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has called for the deportation of foreign prisoners so that they can serve their sentences in their home nations. In Ireland, however, the Irish Penal Reform Trust has called for imprisonment to be regarded as a 'last resort' and for alternative measures , such as community service or supervised temporary release, to be encouraged. The Irish Prison Service has increased the population of prisoners on temporary release , which sees the supervised release of low-level, non-violent offenders serving sentences outside of prison under strict conditions. The State has been criticised for allowing the temporary release scheme as a pressure valve to overcrowding, but sources in the prison management say the programme is the only way it can maintain safe population levels at facilities in the country. In Austria, experts say prison sentences are still too common and, often, people are committed for minor offences. Facilities in the country are at 108% capacity, as of May. Access to rehabilitative care In Spain, the country has adopted a more rehabilitative approach. It allows prisoners a gradual transition to more open regimes, based on their behaviour and risk of re-offending. Similar programmes are available in Ireland . Data from Spain shows that 80% of people released from prison do not return to crime. Related Reads Court escorts for prisoners at risk due to overcrowding, Irish prisons boss warns Fears within prison service that prison overcrowding increasing risk of violence and rioting New ankle monitors could be an alternative to being held on remand, Irish prisons boss says Overcrowding is reducing the population's access to services in Ireland . Sources have said that offenders placed on supervised release or short sentences are, sometimes, not provided with any rehabilitative care. The head of the Irish Prison Service told reporters last month that up to 2,000 prisoners are currently on waiting lists to access psychology support services. Director General Caron McCaffrey said there are also smaller waiting lists for other services, such as addiction therapy, education and training programmes. She said a 'whole of government approach' is needed to boost services such as education, training and therapy in prisons. Responding to questions by The Journal in May, she admitted that people are sometimes released before receiving care. High levels of overcrowding at prisons in Austria is leading to similar issues to what is seen in Ireland, where prisoners outnumber support staff. The European Court of Auditors recently criticised Vienna's lack of investment. Changes are being led from prison management, however, to boost rehabilitation resources in Irish prisons. Existing staff are being upskilled and trained on methods to provide and assist in the care of prisoners with mental health issues. Additionally, a peer-led, pilot programme has been launched in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison which trains and educates prisoners on providing addiction care to others. — This article is part of PULSE, a European collaborative journalism project. With reporting by Maria Delaney (The Journal Investigates, Ireland), Davide Madeddu (Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy), Kim Son Hoang (Der Standard, Austria) and Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial, Spain) as well as translation services by Ciarán Lawless (Voxeurop). Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal

The Journal
04-05-2025
- The Journal
Fears within prison service that prison overcrowding increasing risk of violence and rioting
Inside an Irish prison. The number of people sleeping on mattresses on the floor breached 350 earlier this week. POA POA SENIOR SOURCES WITHIN the Irish Prison Service have said severe overcrowding has increased the risk of rioting within Dublin prisons. It is the working belief of the Irish Prison Service that overcrowding levels are so high that a violent incident is extremely likely to take place within one of the densely populated facilities in Dublin, one senior prison service source said. Overcrowding levels in Irish prisons have not been as high since 2009, when there were more than 13,500 people in custody . Towards the end of that year, at the height of an overcrowding crisis, between 15 and 20 prisoners armed with wood and metal bars became involved in an altercation with others in Mountjoy prison. A number people were later convicted for the riot . The source pointed to the 2009 incident as evidence that extreme levels of overcrowding increase the risk of violence, adding that current risk level is high as it has been in decades. Nationwide overcrowding in prisons is a major cause for concern among staff and officers according to the Irish Prison Officers' Association (POA), which has called for action to resolve the overcrowding crisis as soon as possible. POA President Tony Power said many prison officers believe that with hot weather expected in the city this summer and cramped conditions within Irish prisons, tensions inside between people in custody will begin to rise. 'The problem is that we've nowhere to put people,' Power told The Journal at the POA conference in Galway this week. 'If there is a riot in Mountjoy and we've to move 20 people to Midlands Prison, it means we have to move 20 people out of the Midlands [to make room]. That can't work.' Advertisement A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said it does not comment on operational or security matters. Officers working in over-crowded prisons have described the situation as a 'shit show'. The POA this week expressed concern over the level of contraband coming into prisons, with growing worry among officers that a firearm might be smuggled in . There is a total of 4,666 beds in the Irish prison system, with about 300 beds ideally kept free to ensure safe capacity can be maintained. There are now between 900 and 1,100 more prisoners than beds and fewer spaces are kept free. The service this week began keeping track of the number of people sleeping on mattresses on the floor, with numbers breaching 350 on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters this week , director general of the Irish Prison Service Caron McCaffrey said the service currently has no plans to build new prisons and that it is 'far quicker and cheaper' to expand existing prisons. 'We have lots of plans in relation to additional spaces. Progress is being made on existing projects and we are building on existing prison sites, but the difficulty is the public spending appraisal process takes two years,' she said. Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan pledged to find ways to accelerate the delivery of more prison spaces when addressing the union's annual conference this week. But the senior source said the service knows that 'building out of' the current crisis is not an option, given the timescale involved in capital projects. Throughout the service there is an increasing level of frustration over what has been described as 'neglect' by successive ministers to deal with overcrowding. A number of people working in the prison service also highlighted how a 2013 report by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Penal Reform, which recommended the state take a decarceration strategy to prisons and reduce reliance on custodial sentences, has not been implemented. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal


The Irish Sun
01-05-2025
- Politics
- The Irish Sun
Our prison overcrowding crisis is a disgrace & we'll have a tragic event on our hands soon if real solution not found
OUR prisons are in crisis - with overcrowding out of control. The annual conference of the The conference comes at a time when the number of people in custody is continuing to rise, with more than 350 people sleeping on jail floors yesterday. The prison system is currently 115 per cent over capacity, compared to 110 per cent last April and 104 per cent the previous year. The most overcrowded jails are The POA told how there are a whopping 1,500 more prisoners than in 2019. Read more in News Prison officers fear there will be a 'tragic event or some other crisis' in Irish prisons if the Government does not immediately tackle the worsening levels of overcrowding in the system. Tony Power, President of the Irish Prison Officers' Association, and Midlands Prison Officer, highlights the serious situation in our jails... POA WARNING THE number of people in custody is continuing to rise daily, yesterday we had 5,344 in custody. This is approximately 1,500 prisoners more than at this time in 2019 when I asked the then Minister for Justice to take real action to ensure we did not return to the bad old days of 'Pack 'Em, Rack 'Em and Stack 'Em' and to the revolving door situation. Most read in The Irish Sun This overcrowding situation is a disgrace and is potentially creating an explosive situation within our prisons. Following a meeting held last Tuesday with senior officials - just two days prior to our conference - we were genuinely astonished to learn for the first time that: NO analysis has been conducted regarding the upgrade potential of the E Block at Portlaoise Prison, where 160 idle cells could potentially accommodate up to 200 prisoners. CURRAGH Prison could be brought back into operation to hold 98 prisoners—at a cost significantly lower than the €600,000 per unit currently being spent on modular homes. NO assessment has been made of the development potential of the D Block footprint at Portlaoise, the Separation Unit at Mountjoy, or the former hospital wing at Castlerea. These locations may support fast-tracked construction of updated facilities capable of providing more than 450 additional spaces. At a time when over 350 prisoners are sleeping on floors daily, we are truly shocked that these viable and seemingly straightforward solutions remain wholly unexamined by the Department of Justice. This is unacceptable—and someone must be held accountable. In the interim, we are urgently seeking a meeting with Minister for Justice, Jim O'Callaghan, to discuss this most critical issue and explore a path forward. During such a severe overcrowding crisis, no stone should be left unturned. We met Minister for Justice, Jim O'Callaghan, and his officials recently to discuss this and other issues and he gave us a good hearing. MOVE ON FROM THE PROMISES But nothing will address this situation unless the budget is found to create more prison spaces. We must move on from the promises. Successive ministers have failed prison officers and this is why we find ourselves in this position today. Our members should not be expected to work in these overcrowded prisons and the people in custody should not be expected to live in these overcrowded conditions. It is our contention that the safe working capacity of the present-day prison estate is 4,300, that is over 1,000 less than what is currently in custody, so today I am asking the Minister, what are you going to do about it? I don't want to sound alarmist, but if we don't find an immediate solution to this problem, we will have a tragic event or some form of crisis on all our hands. STOP THE DRONES The level of contraband in our prisons is at unprecedented levels, to the extent that prisoners are now storing The current netting that covers a lot of our prison yards is not sufficient as has been proven over the past number of years. They have been burnt through by firebombs dropped by the drones; they have collapsed under the weight of snow leaving some prisons without exercise yards for prisoners. EXTERNAL THREAT Drones are so sophisticated nowadays that the only way to stop the steady flow of contraband into our prisons is to stop the drones from flying pas the perimeter wall of a prison in the first place. Prison officers are not able to intervene to what is essentially an external threat. The danger that incidents such as these create for Prison Officers is unquantifiable, as officers will put their own Health and Safety at risk in an effort to retrieve this contraband. I am not sensationalising this issue but if drugs, phones even Chinese takeaways can be sent in by drone then what's to stop them sending in firearms? What is it going to take to ensure that the Department of Justice takes some sort of meaningful action to address this most serious issue. If it takes a legislative change and a review of intervention in other jurisdictions, then it is the Justice Minister department's responsibility to make that change, irrespective of cost. SITUATION NOT ACCEPTABLE Overcrowding provides the perfect atmosphere for the bully to thrive and exert huge pressure on vulnerable prisoners. The assaults on prison officers have become part of the system and this is not acceptable to the Prison Officers' Association. All state employees should have a safe working environment - not so for prison officers, and this seems to be widely accepted by the entire management body. 1 Our prisons are in crisis - with overcrowding out of control Credit: Getty Images - Getty