The Gazette 1973

will have a law degree. If the degree is from outside Northern Ireland a short course on Northern Ireland law will be provided. Special provision exists for gradu- ates in subjects other than law and for those with no degree at all. After graduation prospective practitioners enter an Institute of Professional Legal Studies, which will be part of Queen's University but separate from the law faculty. The one-year course here is strictly vocational, concentrating on the practical application of legal knowledge and techniques and the develop- ment of skills needed to practise. This course is followed for solicitors by three years of "limited practice" and for barristers, by pupillage. The final stage is the on- going one of continuing education. If such a structure were adopted here it would mean a dramatic improvement. Legal education in the Re- public has long been in a disgraceful condition, many of the faults stemming from lack of co-ordination between the Universities and the Professional bodies. One example of this is that the Benchers decide the course for most of the King's Inn's exams but the lectures are given in the Universities. Since the Univer- sities are autonomous the course in the University might cover quite different ground. Even if the courses were precisely the same serious problems arise because the student must take two sets of examinations. A Trinity Student doing the four-year B.A. in Legal Science does If there had been any doubts, the first paper pre- sented to the conference would have dispelled them. Prepared by a Home Office research team the paper set out in detail what reformers had stated in more general terms for years : too many alcoholic, mentally handi- capped, mentally ill, and homeless people were being sent to prison. Too many homelesj on mission One problem which disturbed the conference was the judiciary's silence on penal policies. What was the use of penal reformers and administrators meeting to dis- cuss ways of keeping men out of prison if the men who put people in prison, the judges, were absent? One High Court judge, Sir Brian MacKenna, did attend the conference but he agreed that there was too little contact between judges and the people who had to carry out the sentences. Sir Kenneth Younger, chairman of the Howard League for Penal Reform which organ- ised the conference, criticised the judges for what he regarded as a "self-imposed apartheid" in the public discussion of sentencing policies. Judges ignorant of penology It was not just the silence of the bench which dis- turbed Lord Gardiner, the former Lord Chancellor, but their ignorance. Judges were well trained in the rule of

16 subjects and the same number of exams. If he is also doing Bar exams he does another 14—there are no exemptions whatsoever. If he is doing solicitors erams he must do 13 more law subjects plus two Irish papers and book-keeping—32 in all. In addition if he is serving his apprenticeship at the same time he is supposed to be learning the necessary professional and practical skills while doing all the exams. Anomalies like this abound in relation to profes- sional training. In U.C.D. many complaints are made also about the degree, among them the bad conditions, terrible staff-student ratios and lecturers who know no Irish law. Added to complaints like this are factors such as the high cost of becoming a qualified lawyer. All in all it could be said that legal education in the Republic is much worse than in the North. The effective teaching of University law is hampered by bad facilities and conditions and by the excessive out- side claims on the time of the student. The professional bodies are not adequately involved in profiding pro- fessional training. The victims of the present disorgan- ised structure are firstly the students themselves, but most of all the unfortunate public on whom they are set loose unequipped for their job. A wide-ranging examination of legal education in Ireland is urgently needed. The Irish Times, 29 October 1973 law and how to sum up to a jury but were not required to take any examination in criminology, penology, or psychology. There have been a few reforms. Some judges now visit prisons on the special one-week training courses which were established by the Lord Chancellor in 1968. The Parole Board has allowed one or two High Court and Crown Court judges a better insight into prisons. But what, rightly, was of more concern to the confer- ence was not arranging more prison visits for judges, valuable though they would be, but pointing to the need for some form of machinery which would allow collec- tive consultation between judges and prison and proba- tion officials who have to administer the sentences Magistrates probably have more contact with prisons than judges. Local magistrates not only serve on proba- tion committees but also on the boards of visitors which act as prison disciplinary courts and ombudsmen. More people are sent to prison by magistrates than judges, but, because the offenders whom judges send to prison serve longer sentences, they occupy more space. What became clear at the conference was the new Government departments with whom penal reformers now have to tangle. In earlier days the sole target used to be the Home Office. Now several departments are involved. If the isolation of the judiciary is to be resolved, the Lord Chancellor will have to be lobbied. If the increase in detoxification units to help alcoholics remains too slow it is no longer the responsibility of the Home Office but the Department of Health and Social Security instead. If there are too few homeless hostels, the main hope for reform rests with persuading more local councils to build them. 248 imposed by the courts. Magistrates and Prisons

Judges disinterested in penal reform Have judges become too isolated? For four days last week penal reformers and expert prison administrators met at York to discuss how to keep more people out of prison. There was no disagreement on the goal. Home Office officials, probation officers, prison governors, and community workers were all agreed that too many people were being sent to prison.