Vol. 473 No. 6
237 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Justice the total number of prisoners who availed of early release from the prison system in 1996 and-or any other such release from prison prior to serving their full term behind bars; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1990/97]
Approximately 4,500 short-term temporary releases were granted in 1996 with approximately 4,000 receiving full temporary release.
I must stress that one cannot simply add these two figures together to arrive at a total number of individuals who obtained some form of temporary release in that year as there would be a significant overlap of individuals between the two groups, for example a prisoner may have received a day's temporary release to attend a funeral and subsequently been given full temporary release later in the year. This prisoner would be counted in both sets of figures. Figures are not kept in such a way as to readily give the exact extent of this overlap.
