I suppose, what aspects of sentencing law do you think might need reform or, you know, are working well, I suppose? Yeah.

Well, you have just mentioned one of them, I suppose, which is essentially the development of guidelines.

And, you know, the theme that you have is a very, very important one.

As it happens, one of the main pieces of research I'm working on at the moment is called a common law of sentencing.

And one of the features of the common law is that it's something that develops incrementally.

The common law always has to try to strike a delicate balance between stability and development.

We need stability in the law so that we can plan our lives in such a way that we know what the consequences will be if we adopt one course of action rather than another.

Oh.

Would that have been a factor?

Well, I would think so, yes.

I mean, it's interesting that you should mention Limerick, uh, Prison, because the situation is dire, and it has been now for several years.

Um, you know, for most of this year, for example, the prison system as a whole has been operating at, you know, about 125% capacity, which means that there is around 1,000 more people in custody than there is actual bed capacity for.

And Limerick Prison, this is, in percentage terms at least, is usually the worst hit.

For example, at the beginning of this month, it was operating at 170% capacity.

Now, the funny thing about th- this, or there's nothing funny about it, but the strange thing about it is that Limerick Prison, Limerick Women's Prison, is the newest prison in the country.

He described Alison Chalk as a well-to-do woman and, and said, "We have to be clear that people who commit violent crimes should be, in the interest of justice, serve the custodial sentence they were given." Does, does the person's income status have any bearing here on, on whether they would be eligible for early release? And, and I suppose secondly, does he have a point that people should serve the sentences that the courts hand down?