asked the Minister for Justice the number of prisoners released in 1985 under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1960; the number of prisoners released under the same Act for each month in 1986; the number of prisioners who were given full temporary release under probation and welfare service supervision in 1985 and in each month of 1986; the number of prisoners granted full temporary release without probation and welfare supervision in 1985 and in each month of 1986; and these figures also for prisoners held in Mountjoy prison.
Written Answers. - Statistical Details of Prisoners.
105.
Temporary releases allowed under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1960 include full temporary release which effectively means that the offender need not, provided he abides by the conditions of his release, return to prison and renewable temporary release which obliges the offender to return to prison on a specified date when a further period of temporary release may be allowed. Releases also take place for very short periods, sometimes only a matter of hours, as might be the case if the release was authorised to enable the offender to be present on a family occasion and I assume that the question is not intended to relate to such periods of release. In any event, ascertaining the precise figures for them would take up a substantial amount of staff time.
During 1985, 628 offenders were allowed full temporary release. A further 1,267 offenders were granted renewable temporary release. The probation and welfare service supervised 517 of these offenders. A total of 968 offenders in Mountjoy were allowed full temporary release or renewable temporary release. Of these 202 were supervised by the probation and welfare service.
The following are details of offenders released on full temporary release and on renewable temporary release during 1986 to date on a month-by-month basis.
|
Full Temporary Release from all Institutions |
Full Temporary Release from Mountjoy Prison |
Renewable Temporary Release from all Institutions |
Renewable Temporary Release from Mountjoy Prison |
|
|
January |
10 |
3 |
22 |
1 |
|
February |
2 |
— |
111 |
53 |
|
March |
10 |
1 |
71 |
18 |
|
April |
8 |
— |
100 |
36 |
|
May |
14 |
5 |
72 |
14 |
|
June |
30 |
7 |
162 |
38 |
|
July |
25 |
7 |
172 |
51 |
|
August |
17 |
2 |
63 |
17 |
|
September |
40 |
20 |
90 |
39 |
|
October |
34 |
8 |
185 |
60 |
|
November |
38 |
7 |
164 |
61 |
|
Decemberto date |
5 |
3 |
30 |
6 |
Details of offenders who were supervised by the probation and welfare service in 1986 during periods of temporary release will not be available for some months.
I should add that, in general, offenders are only considered for forms of temporary release when they have served a substantial portion of their sentences.