The COVID pandemic has seen a significant drop in the number of people being sent to prison.

New figures show that 29% fewer people were sent to prison in the first six months of this year than in the same period in 2019.

Some 2,954 people were jailed in the first six months of 2021 – down slightly on last year and over 1,200 fewer than in 2019.

Former Mountjoy Prison governor John Lonergan told Newstalk that the drop is related to the pandemic.

“There has been a massive reduction in the number of court sittings and the amount of business they are doing,” he said.

“A second factor would be that the courts, I understand, would be granting bail more liberally – if at all possible being conscious of COVID.

“But I have no doubt at all that, when normality resumes again, that the trends that were there in 2019 - trends that were showing an increase in committals - will resume again.”

According to the figures, there are 3,150 people currently serving a sentence in prison.

Some 410 are doing time for murder or a similar homicide offence, and 435 are in jail for sex offences.

A total of 362 are serving a life-sentence – 352 men and 10 women.

Mr Lonergan said Ireland sends a relatively low number of people to prison.

“We are around 77-80 per 100,000 population,” he said.

“In Denmark and Holland and places like that, it is around 60 while in the US it is around 660 per 100,000 people.”