I am aware of the figures referred to by the Deputy, which are extracted from the Trinity House school step down report for 2003. This report outlines the work of the step down unit which was established at the school in 2002 and also contains a summary of the results of the unit's tracking system which monitors all young people who pass through Trinity House school.
The tracking system was introduced in 2002 alongside the establishment of the step down unit and involves exit interviews with all young people leaving the school. Interviews are carried out one month after the young person leaves the school and are repeated at six months and one year intervals. The school has recently introduced interviews after two years also.
Of the 57 young people who participated in the Trinity House school tracking system up to the end of 2003, it was found that within six months of being discharged from the school 24 young people, 42%, were reported to be in prison. Some five of these 24 cases, 21%, refer to young people remanded by the courts to Trinity House school for the most serious offences who on conviction for those offences were directly transferred to the prison system. A further 25 young people, 43%, were living at home, three young people were in residential care, two were homeless and one had returned to Trinity House school.
The figures highlight the high levels of recidivism that are associated with juvenile crime. This is an international phenomenon which reflects the difficulties to be overcome in breaking the cycle of criminality and integrating marginalised young people into responsible participation in society. All of the special schools for young offenders operate on a multi-disciplinary basis and offer individual care and education plans for the young people in their care. Young people are discharged in a planned manner in consultation with the relevant agencies and the schools have developed individual aftercare policies. The step down unit at the school was established in this context to provide ongoing support for all young people leaving the care of Trinity House school and it operates a work placement programme and an outreach programme for the young people. A similar step down unit has been established at Oberstown girls centre and my Department is currently examining a proposal for a similar unit at Oberstown boys centre.
My Department is considering the introduction of a tracking system across the five special schools for young offenders in the context of introducing a management information system. As the Deputy will be aware, the Children Act 2001 provides a new legal framework for the Departments of Education and Science, Health and Children and Justice, Equality and Law Reform and their agencies in the delivery of support services for children with special care needs and those in conflict with the law. It provides for a major reform of the juvenile justice system and enshrines the principle of detention as a last resort. The Act provides for the Special Residential Services Board which has been established on a statutory basis and which is charged, inter alia, with advising on the remand and detention of children. My Department will work closely with the board in ensuring that our special schools operate to the highest standards in line with international best practice.
Finally I would like to refer to the work of the project team, which was recently established by my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, to examine the scope for rationalising and restructuring the State's services in the area of youth justice, with a view to improving the State's capacity to respond to juvenile offending.
