Vol. 558 No. 2
56 Mr. S. Ryan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the Government accepts the recommendations of the NESF report on the integration of prisoners; if it is intended to implement the recommendations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23723/02]
A central focus of this report is on the barriers to reintegration and the need for targeted and coherent mechanisms to ensure that prisoners can be more effectively integrated back into the community. The report's overall conclusion is that what are required are key institutional mechanisms and models to spearhead and ensure effective follow through on the report's recommendations. Priority is being given to developing these mechanisms. A high level co-ordination group on prisoner reintegration has been established and is chaired by an assistant secretary from my Department. This group is composed of senior officials from the various Departments and statutory agencies who are identified in the report as having a role to play in progressing its implementation. This reflects the fact that, as the report makes clear, it is not only my Department but its associated agencies that will have a significant role in this regard. The group will also be drawing on the expertise of the many community and voluntary groups that have experience of dealing with the issues raised by the report. The group is currently examining the areas for action highlighted in the report and will oversee the implementation of the appropriate recommendations.
The elaboration of positive sentence management as a mechanism for effective integration and co-ordination of all services and programmes designed to meet the complex and diverse needs of offenders, is a key task for the Prison Service. Important aspects of this task are building alliances and partnerships with the wider community and development of a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of drug treatment, education, vocational training and multidisciplinary programmes – including offender behaviour programmes. The appointment of a director of regimes in the Prison Service has been an important step in this process and will provide an administrative driver for this task. It is intended to establish, in the very near future, a working group on positive sentence management within the prison service comprising all the relevant agencies and bodies. This working group will be mindful of best practice in other jurisdictions.
Interagency working, the multidisciplinary team approach and the elaboration of positive sentence management are each concepts with which my Department, the Irish Prisons Service and the probation and welfare service are already fully familiar. The Prisons Service's strategy statement, 2001 to 2003, which was launched in October 2001, sets forth in some detail the strategic work programme on which the service has already embarked to dovetail these concepts into the daily workings of the service and each individual institution. Many of the actions highlighted by the NESF report had previously been identified by both the Irish Prisons Service and the probation and welfare service, and work on implementing them has been progressing.
