asked the Minister for Justice if he will state the recidivism rate among first offenders in this country.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Recidivism of First Offenders.
99.
It is not possible to be certain that any particular offender is a "first offender" and of course very few of those who come before the courts for the first time on criminal charges are sentenced to detention or imprisonment.
Figures showing how many of these offenders break the law again or are sentenced for further offences are not available and could be obtained only as a result of a survey extending over several years at least.
Appendix V of the Annual Report on Prisons gives figures of the numvis ber of prisoners committed during any year who have already served sentences of imprisonment but this is not the same thing as the information sought by the Deputy.
Would the Minister not consider it is desirable that this survey should be done, even if it takes a few years?
I would like to see it done but unfortunately it would take quite a long time. To do it realistically one would have to start with a particular year about five years back and a fairly large staff would be needed for it.
Can we not start it now?
I have not got the staff to do it at the moment.
May I put it to the Minister that his efforts at rehabilitation will be futile unless the information that such a survey would throw up is acquired in his Department?
I do not think so. I think this would simply quantify it and make us aware of how successful or unsuccessful we were. It would not have any great bearing on the actual work itself.
Surely in the course of the survey information would be obtained which would be very relevant to the welfare officers in their work of rehabilitation?
It would be helpful but unfortunately it is a very major undertaking. The staff at present available could not do it.