How many chances should offenders get before we say enough is enough?

We are very lenient in this country when it comes to dealing with serial offenders. Anyone can mess up and fair enough, if it’s your first offence and it’s out of character, then you probably deserve a second chance, except it’s a serious crime obviously. But how many chances should you get and at what stage should the judicial system say, enough is enough?

The Irish Examiner reported recently that a man who admitted filming himself carrying out “vile” sex acts on an infant boy, and who then shared the video footage with others on social media, was jailed for six years with the final two years suspended.

He had 133 previous convictions, and pleaded guilty to knowingly possessing child pornography, knowingly producing child pornography, knowingly distributing child pornography; defilement of a child; and using communication technology to facilitate the sexual exploitation of a child.

The judge said he had to impose an immediate custodial sentence, and he described Marshall’s behaviour as “appalling, vile, egregious, and despicable”.

The mother of the child told the court of the shock to her, her family and friends. The abuse of her son had destroyed her mental health, and she had self-harmed because of what happened her son.

There are many victims in this story including the child, the immediate family, extended family and friends. The offender had 133 previous convictions, so God only knows the extent of the destruction he has left in his wake over the years. This one guy has caused extensive harm and on the face of it, you’d have to wonder why a person with that kind of record should even be in a position to interfere with anyone beyond the walls of a prison in the first place.

It seems shocking that a serial offender should be walking the streets but it’s not unusual. It’s quite common actually for persistent offenders with a large number of previous convictions to be out and about. You only have to look at Liam Heylen’s court reports in the Irish Examiner to see how common it is. Here’s a selection:

A man convicted of engaging in threatening behaviour for the 48th time insisted he was not a violent person. He pleaded guilty at Cork District Court where it was revealed he had a total of 228 previous convictions, including 15 for burglary, 62 for being so intoxicated that he was a danger and 47 for threatening conduct.

A 61-year-old man who exposed himself on the city’s main street had 185 previous convictions, including 76 for being drunk and a danger and 28 for engaging in threatening or abusive behaviour.

A drunken man threatened a member of An Garda Síochána that he would rape him and his mother and also called him “a dead pig.” He also spat at gardaí and attempted to strike the garda and grab him by the neck. His previous convictions included 28 for being drunk and a danger, and 15 for engaging in threatening behaviour, one for obstruction, two for assault, and one for assault causing harm.

Another guy pleaded guilty to a number of thefts from shops against a background of extensive criminal convictions. He had 338 previous convictions and 58 of those were for theft.

A tourist in a café in Cork city centre had her bag with personal belongings stolen and the 40-year-old culprit had over 100 previous convictions related to theft, larceny and burglary and more than 100 more for other offences.

A 48-year-old man stood over another man and struck his face repeatedly with a broken bottle in Cork city centre. The injured party required 25 stitches to his face and the accused had over 150 previous convictions.

A Cork man with 216 previous convictions was charged with interfering with a car. His previous convictions included 58 for being drunk and a danger, 45 for engaging in threatening behaviour, 25 for theft, 17 for burglary, one for interfering with a car, and 13 for causing criminal damage.

There are numerous repeat offenders appearing in court on a daily basis with lists of convictions as long as your arm. They’re habitual criminals and it’s not as if they didn’t get chances. They got plenty in the course of their offending because our judicial system is designed in such a way that custodial sentences are only imposed as a last resort. 

But even when they do end up in jail it seems the cycle can’t be broken. Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) a few years ago showed that 45.8%, almost half, of prisoners re-offend within three years of being released from prison. The CSO figures also showed that young people are more likely to reoffend, with three quarters of those aged 21 years or under re-offending.

Overall, men (47%) were more likely to re-offend than women (36%). A study of prison releases in 2012 showed half of those released in Ireland who re-offended, did so within six months of release, while a further one in five re-offended within a year.

It’s been said that prison doesn’t work. There has been a lot of research into the penal system and some of it has shown that long stretches have little impact on crime. Some will argue that mixing with other criminal elements while incarcerated will only further educate younger offenders in the ways of the underworld.

It’s expensive too. It currently costs somewhere in the region of €80,000 to keep a prisoner locked up for a year and even at that, we’re running out of prison space. If we could lock them all up, research tells us that it’s a waste of time anyway.

I don’t know what the answer is but until we find a solution, we’ll continue to have a lot of disturbed people living among us.