Professor Tom O’Malley SC will speak about the prison overcrowding crisis next week at an event jointly hosted by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and the Bar Council of Ireland.

In his new book, Sentencing: A Modern Introduction, he poses the question of whether people being given custodial sentences deserve a discount on their sentences because the conditions are worse than can be reasonably anticipated.

His book cites, for example, the discounted sentences given by English judges during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lower sentences for individuals who are likely to have a disproportionately difficult time in prison relative to the general population (i.e. migrants with limited English or connections in the country, former gardaí, etc.) are common and well established in Irish case law.

If arguments for a discount based on the conditions were made by lawyers and accepted by judges it would represent an implicit judicial critique of Ireland’s inadequate prison conditions and would have a de-carceral impact, which could help alleviate overcrowding.

Saoirse Brady, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), will also speak at next week’s event to provide an overview of prison conditions and their impact on human rights compliance and the welfare, safety and rehabilitation of people in prison.

The discussion will be chaired by Seán Egan BL, ICCL’s procedural rights fellow, and there will be an opportunity for attendees to take part in a Q&A with all speakers.

The free event takes place on Wednesday 18 June, 4.30pm to 6pm, in the Gaffney Room of the Law Library’s Distillery Building.