Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 October 2015
390. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of occasions on which alleged crimes have been committed by prisoners while on early release, day release and compassionate release in each of the past ten years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36628/15]
View answerThe legislative basis for making decisions on temporary release is fully set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1960, as amended by the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Act 2003.
Temporary release is an important vehicle for re-integrating an offender into the community in a planned way.
I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that any offender who breaches his or her conditions, including committing a criminal offence, may be arrested and returned to prison immediately by the Gardaí or may be refused another period of reviewable temporary release. If someone re-offends on temporary release, the matter of their prosecution is a matter for An Garda Síochána and the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider.
If the person is returned to prison to serve the remaining part of their sentence as a result of breaching their temporary release conditions, this information is kept on file and is taken into consideration by the Irish Prison Service for any future temporary release decisions that are taken in respect of that offender. Behaviour on temporary release is one of the criterion to be considered as outlined in the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Act 2003. The Irish Prison Service work closely with An Garda Síochána and the Probation Service in respect of the monitoring, supervision and compliance of those on temporary release.
The Irish Prison Service Three Year Strategic Plan 2012-2015 and the Joint Prison Service/Probation Service Strategic Plan 2015-2017 includes working towards the objective of ensuring that all prisoners released early from custody are placed on appropriate structured programme of temporary release.
The Community Return Scheme is an initiative whereby carefully selected prisoners, serving sentences between 1 year and 8 years, can be granted reviewable temporary release coupled with a requirement to do community service work such as painting, gardening or graffiti removal in a supervised group setting. The type of work involved is intended to assist the community and the scheme is involved with a large number of charitable organisations and local community groups.
A recent report on the Community Return Scheme has showed that there were 232 persons released in the first year of the Scheme, from October 2011 to end September 2012. Of this group the report highlighted that as at the end of year 2013, 91% of those involved in the Scheme had not returned to custody.
In addition to Community Return, a Community Support Scheme has also been introduced to reduce recidivism rates of short term prisoners by arranging for additional support structures post release and by providing for a more structured form of temporary release.
I am informed by the Irish Prison Service that they do not collate such information in the format requested by the Deputy. However, the Irish Prison Service Recidivism study for 2008 shows that 1,809 persons out of a total of 5,489 that were released in that year went on to re-offend within the first 6 months of release. This figure also includes offences committed before their official release date and this would take account of crimes committed while on early release, day release, and compassionate release. It also includes offences committed while in custody such as assaults and possession of mobile phones.
These figures were produced in partnership with the Central Statistics Office using a combination of Garda Síochána and Irish Prison Service records, based on the Irish Crime Classification System (ICCS). The study, which was published in December 2013, looked at the available data up to the end of 2011 to take account of the time to make a conviction and a broader 3 year analysis of recidivism.
It is expected that the Recidivism study for the 2009 releases will be published in December 2015 by the Central Statistics Office.
