View/Open - CORA - University College Cork

It is worth noting that these sentencing practices, particularly the practice of part-
suspension of sentence, emerged in the context of perceived interference bythe Executive
in the judicial domain over the last thirty years or so. Prison overcrowding became so
acute in the late 1980s and the early 1990s that serious offenders were released within a
short time of committal to prison for reasonably long sentences 115 . The Central and
Circuit Criminal Courts utilised the review procedure to ensure the convicted person
served a period in custody at least until the review came up for hearing. Thus, the
Executive could not release the prisoner in the interim period. Additionally, by imposing
conditions upon the prisoner to behave and particularly to remain drug free while in
custody, the courts sought to initiate changes in the behaviour of the prisoner while at the
same time extracting a punitive measure by imposing a minimum period of custody to be
served. The requirement to pursue drug treatment and/or to remain drug free while in
custodyemerged as a frequent condition of reviewable sentences, particularlyin the Dublin
Circuit Criminal Court. But perhaps the most salient feature of the part-suspended
sentence as exercised in the Irish criminal courts was the consecutive advancement of two
sentencing rationales. Firstly, the extraction of retribution by obliging the offender to
serve an initial period in custody was combined with the second feature of control of the
released prisoner in society under the Damocle`s sword of further punishment if the
convicted person should further transgress or not abide by conditions addressed to mould
his/her behaviour for the periodof suspension.
(c) District Court Suspended Sentence.
Although the straightforward suspended sentence is sometimes used in the disposal of
criminal cases in the District Court, another variation of the suspended sentence has
evolved within that jurisdiction. This involves the imposition of a specified custodial
sentence which is then suspended but not upon the convicted person entering into a
recognisance to keep the peace. Instead the court records the custodial sentence and then
suspends it on condition that the convicted person is not convicted for a subsequent
offence within a specified period (usually up to two years duration). This clearly is a
departure from the suspended sentence described by Osborough and based on reported
115 On 10 December 2008, prison occupancywas at 114/% of capacityand an extra 10% of prisoners were on temporaryrelease (personal communication -
Department of Justice EqualityandLawReform10th December 2008).
284