Should these terrorist killers be freed from prison in the name of

Katherine McDonald

IF the Good Friday agreement is accepted at the polls this month, paramilitary prisoners will be released within two years, including those serving life for murder.

But should a life sentence mean locking up a prisoner and throwing away the key - or should we be more lenient?

Katherine McDonald is press officer for NIACRO, Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders.

She believes that every criminal case is unique so a life sentence should not mean life.

Dundalk TD Brendan McGahon takes a hardline view on crime and punishment. He wants a life sentence to mean life and believes that capital punishment should be introduced for murder.

YES

Lifers crucial

to settlement

Katherine McDonald says

releases are necessary

THIS is not an easy question to answer. It means balancing the feelings of the victims of crime with the idea that a person should be punished, but then has a second chance to get it right.

It means showing that we, as a society, take certain crimes very seriously, but we recognise that every case is different.

And it means making a decision about the risk a prisoner poses, but accepting that, in most cases, there can be rehabilitation and a chance for a new start.

A life sentence in our system really means about 15 years. The sentence itself is divided into the three Rs - retribution, rehabilitation and risk.

The first depends on the gravity of the offence and the other two are flexible parts of the sentence.

This means that no life-sentenced prisoner will be released if he or she is thought to be any sort of risk to the community.

After they have served 10 years, the Life Sentence Review Board in Northern Ireland will assess lifers and recommend to the Secretary of State whether they should be released or not.

This board includes a psychiatrist, prison officials and probation officers. If released, the prisoner will be on licence for life.

It is important that we have a system because every case is different.

Anyone who has seen the film The Shawshank Redemption will remember the Morgan Freeman character getting knocked back for parole year after year.

Finally he thinks about the young, angry man he was when he committed the crime, and the person he is now - changed by more than 20 years in prison.

He wishes he could grab hold of that hot-blooded 18-year-old and point him in a different direction, tell him not to do it.

Should that person receive the same treatment as the repeat offender who is still a danger to society?

Or what about the battered wife who lashed out once after years of abuse?

NIACRO believes they are not the same and that is why our system needs to be flexible.

The statistics would seem to bear out that the safeguards we have are working.

A recent Home Office study in England and Wales reveals that fixed- term sentenced prisoners are twice as likely to re-offend than lifers after release.

In Northern Ireland, of the 424 lifers released since 1983 - the vast majority of whom were terrorist offenders - only four per cent have been re-convicted of any offence.

If the Good Friday agreement is approved on May 22, there will be accelerated release for many of these politically-motivated prisoners.

This is a difficult issue for many people and perhaps especially for the victims of violence.

The voices of these and all victims must be heard, but many will recognise that if prisoner release contributes to a stable and lasting peace, then it is a difficult step which is worth taking.

NIACRO has long argued that prisoner release is a crucial part of any settlement in Northern Ireland.

Our international research carried out in 1994 in Israel, Palestine, Italy, Spain and South Africa confirmed that prisoner release is a significant factor in the achievement of peace.

It is estimated that 100,000 people in Northern Ireland are ex- prisoners or closely related to them.

Prisoners have a special importance in the republican and loyalist communities and for paramilitary organisations.

They have acted out the aspiration, fears, angers, hatred and hurts of much larger groups of people - people who would not allow themselves to become involved personally in violence.

In this way, you could say they take on a symbolic importance for their communities.

And many ex-prisoners have played a key role in the peace process as negotiators and as spokespersons in political parties.

Ex-prisoners have also taken a lead in their own communities, working for economic and social development and often helping to reduce inter- community conflict.

It will not be an easy matter for the people of Northern Ireland to accept early release or to recognise that the violence was politically motivated.

But recognition of the political motivation of violence does not mean that we accept violence - to understand all is not necessarily to forgive all.

But it is about consigning violence to the past. It means talking peace, not victory.

It is our view that politically-motivated offenders are highly unlikely to re-offend in the context of a peaceful and stable Northern Ireland and that they could well contribute to maintaining and reinforcing that peace.

The tragic fact is that no amount of time a prisoner serves can bring back a loved one.

But after 15 years punishment, many prisoners can be released without risk to the public.

Northern Ireland is potentially looking towards a brighter future.

And it is that sense of hope which should not be lost in our prisons.

Prisons should be places for punishment - but they should also be places for rehab-ilitation.

A prisoner without a release date - no matter how far away it may be - is a prisoner with no incentive to reflect, to hope or to change.

NO

Protect society

from murderers

Brendan McGahon TD says life must mean life

THE question of whether a life sentence should mean life is timely at present because of the likelihood of killers being released on to the streets of Ireland.

It has to be seen against a background of total appeasement to terrorism by the British and Irish Governments.

They have jointly capitulated to the bomb and the bullet of the various private armies in the North and South.

The release of these men and women 40 years ago would have produced a storm of outrage and protest among members of the public and politicians. But much has changed in daily life in the last 40 years.

Liberalism has crept in and has now succeeded in totally colouring society with all types of justification on behalf of criminals.

We are expected to listen to them and feel sympathy for those who committed the crimes.

There is now no shortage of people to argue and campaign on behalf of people like Myra Hindley.

Some of these criminals have been accused and convicted of gruesome and heinous crimes against other human beings, yet they attract the support of these so-called bleeding heart liberals. This type of liberalism seeks to give a person the right to do anything he likes without restrictions.

Once liberalism got its foot inside the door, it proceeded to kick the door down and, over the ensuing years, the concept of a punitive society has changed to a rehabilitative concept under the guise of a humanitarian outlook.

The system of sentencing underwent a gradual change.

So we were left with the situation where the number one crime of murder was re-assessed and downgraded as a third-rate crime.

It has now been relegated from the dastardly crime it was known as down through the centuries.

Capital punishment was dropped from the statute books by the enlightened legislators and life was supposed to replace it, meaning the serving of a prisoner's actual life.

This sentence has now been quickly dropped and does not mean what we originally believed it to mean.

Now it means nothing. The release of a life prisoner is a moveable feast that can happen anytime at the whim of a Government or Prime Minister.

The British and Irish Governments are now preparing to release hundreds of killers who have snuffed out the lives of their fellow human beings.

Does democracy really give a damn?

The killers are going to be told all is forgiven, but the graves do not yield their dead - the victims of these people do not have a voice to protest.

This attitude suggests that today's society and the Governments really don't give a damn for these men and women who were butchered by savages in defence of democracy and normality.

It suggests that these lives were simply expendable in the mad rush to solve the tragedy of Ireland and to have a solution ready at the appointed time for the British Secretary of State Mo Mowlam and the Prime Minister Tony Blair for political purposes.

I wonder if Bill Clinton, the US president, who governs a country where killers are executed every day, would allow murderers in such numbers to be released? I think not.

The phrase, paying their debt to society, has also been thrown aside.

There is now a body of intellectuals, sociologists and politicians who feel criminals should not be asked to repay society.

They tell us that we should understand why criminals commit crime, why a man kills or why a terrorist throws a bomb into a pub.

The primary concern of these do-gooders and bleeding hearts is for people who commit violent crimes. They have little or no sympathy for the victims.

They do not see the need for a punitive concept. They don't believe that society should seek retribution or create deterrents against others who are contemplating a life of crime.

They also believe jails should no longer be ball and chain establishments but that comfort should be the order of the day for the poor, misguided inhabitants.

This has resulted in Long Kesh being run by the inmates, which has weakened society as a result.

In such a climate, the downgrading of a life sentence is, and was, inevitable.

I believe that if society is to survive in the future, we must reinstate the punitive element and the deterrent factor.

We have witnessed the downgrading of murder as a detestable sin against God and man.

If any appreciation of the sanctity of life remains to the enlightened legislators of the two Governments and the judiciary, men and women who take a life should spend the rest of their own natural life in jail.

A wild animal has to be locked up and wild humans are no different - after all, we are supposed to have intellect and reason.

Society needs and demands protection.

If horrendous crimes are ignored, whether terrorist or otherwise, the fabric of society will become even more weakened.

Last week's result

Is it acceptable for partners to have sex outside marriage?

N.Ireland Republic

YES

NO

25%

75%

12%

88%

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