Written Answers. - Sex Offenders.
Michael D. Higgins
Question:
67
Mr. M. Higgins
asked the
Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform
the number of prisoners currently serving custodial sentences for sexual offences; the number of such prisoners currently on treatment programmes; the steps being taken to increase the number of such prisoners on rehabilitation programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[20167/00]
There were 350 convicted sex offenders in custody in Irish prisons on Tuesday, 26 September 2000.
Public discussion and commentary about the issue of the treatment of sex offenders frequently implies that the dedicated sex offender treatment programme in Arbour Hill prison is the only form of rehabilitation programme in place for sex offenders in Irish prisons and that it reaches a very limited number of prisoners annually. This is incorrect.
At present there are four forms of direct therapeutic intervention available to sex offenders within the Irish prison system. All four are aimed at enabling such offenders gain some measure of control over their offending behaviour. The first intervention method is individual counselling from the Department's psychology service and from the probation and welfare service. This is a largely demand led service to individual prisoners who ask for help. The second intervention is a multidisciplinary thinking skills group work programme which focuses on issues such as anger management, evasion of personal responsibility and relapse prevention. This programme is in place in Cork prison and Arbour Hill prison since 1998. The third intervention which tends to receive most media coverage is the extremely intensive offence focused group work programme which is available in Arbour Hill prison and which is delivered by officers of the probation and welfare and psychology services of the Department. This programme can cater for up to ten offenders at one time and takes ten to 11 months to complete. The emphasis is on accepting personal responsibility for the offence and developing effective relapse prevention strategies for each offender. All convicted sex offenders, regardless of the institution in which they are held, are invited to apply for inclusion in this programme. The fourth intervention which perhaps deserves greater acknowledgement involves the psychiatric service which provides extensive support to prisoners in this category. This is done on a sessional basis, and a call-out basis as well as in response to particular individual crises.
Many of the sex offenders currently in custody are participating in one or more of the forms of intervention referred to earlier. Ten prisoners are undertaking the dedicated treatment programme, referred to earlier, in Arbour Hill prison.
I have asked the director general of the Irish Prisons Service to ensure that the treatment of sex offenders throughout the prison system is given priority attention. A working group chaired by the director general and comprising representatives of all the relevant agencies and prison disciplines is currently overseeing the introduction of a number of interventions for sex offenders in the Curragh which accommodates approximately 100 sex offenders.
A thinking skills programme has already been introduced in the Curragh. An intensive sex offenders group treatment programme, drawing particularly on successful offender participants in the thinking skills programme will be introduced in November this year.
The thinking skills course referred to above was introduced in Arbour Hill and Cork prison early in 1998. It is designed to target a range of offenders including sex offenders, particularly with a view to motivating the latter group to engage in the most intensive programmes. The course is run by multidisciplinary teams, including prison officers, probation and welfare staff and teaching staff under the guidance of my Department's psychology service. The skills taught in this programme include general strategies for recognising problems, analysing them and considering non-criminal alternatives, how to consider the consequences of their behaviour – to think before they act, how to go beyond their own view of the world and consider the thoughts, views and feelings of other people and how to develop the ability to control their own behaviour and avoid acting impulsively. This programme is considered by the director general and his advisers to be the preferred first line of approach to rehabilitating sex offenders in custody as in many cases it builds up their frequently low personal motivation to address offending behaviour in depth.
When the intensive sex offenders group treatment programme is introduced in the Curragh during the current year it will be operated by the probation and welfare service and psychology service in the same mode as the current Arbour Hill programme.
A steering group to put in place multidisciplinary prisoner programmes was established recently. This group chaired by a senior prison governor comprises representatives from the Department, senior prisons service management, probation and welfare service, psychology service, prisons education and the POA. Its first task will be to oversee the establishment of a new rehabilitative programme for sex offenders. This programme will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team consisting of prison officers, psychologists, probation and welfare staff and teachers. To this end the Irish Prisons Service has recruited the services of a research psychologist to assist in the development of this programme. This work is expected to be completed in the new year.
The ultimate objective for the Irish Prisons Service is to develop and put in place a wider range of rehabilitation programmes for sex offenders than are currently available, to ensure they operate on independently accredited selection, training and service methods and that they reach every sex offender in custody who is willing to participate at some level in their personal rehabilitation and relapse prevention. The latter point about willingness by prisoners convicted of sex offences to co-operate in personal rehabilitation programmes is significant because it is the experience in many prison jurisdictions including Ireland that a significant percentage of prisoners decline the opportunity to partake in this work. Compulsion is not a realistic or indeed legal option in such cases.
Question 68 taken with Question No. 10.
Question 69 taken with Question No. 15.
