Vol. 488 No. 4
275 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the rate of recidivism among persons under the age of 18 who were first convicted of criminal offences, for each of the past five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6392/98]
Records are not maintained in a way which would allow the provision of the information sought by the Deputy. However, the Deputy may be interested to know that an expert study on the Mountjoy Prison population "A Sociological and Criminological Profile" which was published by my Department in June 1997 found that the rate of recidivism among our prisoners is high. The study showed, for example, that about 89 per cent of the prisoner sample profiled could be classified as persistent or repeat offenders, while 77 per cent of the sample group had previously spent some time in St. Patrick's Institution for juvenile offenders.
