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has given the courts a wide discretion to impose a suspended sentence under Section 99.
Specifically, the Oireachtas has not circumscribed the power of the courts to use the
sanction in exceptional cases only, which limitations are a key feature of the suspended
sentence in many other jurisdictions. In consequence, the distinct possibility arises that
courts which might be encouraged by the new enforcement procedures will use the new
sanction much more widely. A further wideningin the use of the suspended sentence may
occur in respect of the part suspended sentence. The part suspended sentence has been
seldom used in the District Court to date and Section 99 does not differentiate between
types of courts. If the District Court, the court which deals with the greatest number of
criminal cases, embarks upon the use of the part suspended sentence in addition to the
wholly suspended sentence, the overall number of committals to prison must be expected
to rise and perhaps rise sharply. This view is based upon the expansionary use of the
suspended sentence in place of other non-custodial sanctions and the enhanced revocation
proceedings brought in under Section 99(9) – (18). While at the initial stage a suspended
sentence may avoid custody if it was genuinely contemplated by the sentencing court, if in
aggregate the sanction is used more extensively, the level of committals to prison for
breach of conditions of the suspended sentence will inevitablyrise. At the date of writing,
there are no data available in relation to the rate of breaches of suspended sentences in
Ireland. However, international experience discloses a reasonably high rate of
incarceration for breach of suspended sentences and these high rates of incarceration
emerge in jurisdictions where the use of the suspended sentence is restricted in legislation
to exceptional cases only, unlike in Irelandunder the newSection 99 procedure.
When examined in the round, the new Section 99 discloses features of the emerging
control (Kilcommins et al 2004) approach to the disposal of criminal cases by the Irish
courts. A suspended sentence, which might be regarded as a punishment in its own right
is reinforced by the inclusion of conditions which seek to change the behaviour of the
offender. In some respects this may be the Trojan horse to replace the traditional
probation order. Under threat of a known custodial sentence, the probation officer or
treatment agency may coerce the offender to comply with conditions of treatment while
armed with the option of returning the offender to court for the imposition of the original
sentence. Thus, while the treatment approach is an essential feature of the initial
suspended sentence, it is still located under the mantle of coercion rather than persuasion.
The other side of the suspended sentence is the distinct possibility that upon breach, even
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